“Varopoulos paradigm”: Mackey property versus metrizability in topological groups.

The class of all locally quasi-convex (lqc) abelian groups contains all locally convex vector spaces (lcs) considered as topological groups. Therefore it is natural to extend classical properties of locally convex spaces to this larger class of abelian topological groups. In the present paper we consider the following well known property of lcs: “A metrizable locally convex space carries its Mackey topology ”. This claim cannot be extended to lqc-groups in the natural way, as we have recently proved with other coauthors (Außenhofer and de la Barrera Mayoral in J Pure Appl Algebra 216(6):1340–1347, 2012; Díaz Nieto and Martín Peinador in Descriptive Topology and Functional Analysis, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics, Vol 80 doi:10.1007/978-3-319-05224-3_7, 2014; Dikranjan et al. in Forum Math 26:723–757, 2014). We say that an abelian group G satisfies the Varopoulos paradigm (VP) if any metrizable locally quasi-convex topology on G is the Mackey topology. In the present paper we prove that in any unbounded group there exists a lqc metrizable topology that is not Mackey. This statement (Theorem C) allows us to show that the class of groups satisfying VP coincides with the class of finite exponent groups. Thus, a property of topological nature characterizes an algebraic feature of abelian groups.

Mackey topology on locally convex spaces and on locally quasi-convex groups. Similarities and historical remarks

A counterpart of the Mackey–Arens Theorem for the class of locally quasi-convex topological Abelian groups (LQC-groups) was initiated in Chasco et al. (Stud Math 132(3):257–284, 1999). Several authors have been interested in the problems posed there and have done clarifying contributions, although the main question of that source remains open. Some differences between the Mackey Theory for locally convex spaces and for locally quasi-convex groups, stem from the following fact: The supremum of all compatible locally quasi-convex topologies for a topological abelian group G may not coincide with the topology of uniform convergence on the weak quasi-convex compact subsets of the dual groupG∧. Thus, a substantial part of the classical Mackey–Arens Theorem cannot be generalized to LQC-groups. Furthermore, the mentioned fact gives rise to a grading in the property of “being a Mackey group”, as defined and thoroughly studied in Díaz Nieto and Martín-Peinador (Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics 80:119–144, 2014). At present it is not known—and this is the main open question—if the supremum of all the compatible locally quasi-convex topologies on a topological group is in fact a compatible topology. In the present paper we do a sort of historical review on the Mackey Theory, and we compare it in the two settings of locally convex spaces and of locally quasi-convex groups. We point out some general questions which are still open, under the name of Problems.