Bohr Compactification Article Index for
Bohr
Website Links For
Bohr
 

Information About

Bohr Compactification





DEFINITIONS AND BASIC PROPERTIES


Given a Topological Group ''G'', the Bohr compactification of ''G'' is a compact ''Hausdorff'' topological group '''Bohr'''(''G'') and a continuous homomorphism

:b: ''G'' → '''Bohr'''(''G'')

which is Universal with respect to homomorphisms into compact Hausdorff groups; this means that if ''K'' is another compact Hausdorff topological group and

f


is a continuous homomorphism, then there is a unique continuous homomorphism

:Bohr(''f''): Bohr(''G'') → ''K''

such that ''f'' = Bohr(''f'') '''b'''.

Theorem. The Bohr compactification exists and is unique up to isomorphism.

This is a direct application of the Tychonoff Theorem .

We will denote the Bohr compactification of ''G'' by Bohr(''G'') and the canonical map by

: \mathbf{b}(G): G ightarrow \mathbf{Bohr}(G).

The correspondence ''G'' → Bohr(''G'') defines a covariant functor on the category of topological groups and continuous homomorphisms.

The Bohr compactification is intimately connected to the finite-dimensional Unitary Representation theory of a topological group. The Kernel of b consists exactly of those elements of ''G'' which cannot be separated from the identity of ''G'' by finite-dimensional ''unitary'' representations.

The Bohr compactification also reduces many problems in the theory of Almost Periodic Function s on topological groups to that of functions on compact groups.

A bounded continuous complex-valued function ''f'' on a topological group ''G'' is uniformly almost periodic iff the set of right translates ''g''''f'' where

: f (x) = f(g^{-1} \cdot x)

is relatively compact in the uniform topology as ''g'' varies through ''G''.

Theorem. A bounded continuous complex-valued function ''f'' on ''G'' is uniformly almost periodic iff there is a continuous function ''f''1 on '''Bohr'''(''G'') (which is uniquely determined) such that

: f = f_1 \circ \mathbf{b}(G).