English

Big Free Groups are Almost Free

Group Theory 2015-06-12 v2

Abstract

It is shown that the big free group (the set of countably-long words over a countable alphabet) is almost free, in the sense that any function from the alphabet to a compact topological group factors through a homomorphism. This statement is in fact a simple corollary of the more general result proven below on the extendability of homomorphisms from subgroups (of a certain kind) of the big free group to a compact topological group.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1312.4750,
  title  = {Big Free Groups are Almost Free},
  author = {Tamer Tlas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1312.4750},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

10 pages, several arguments expanded with no change in the results, one reference added

R2 v1 2026-06-22T02:29:23.921Z