Generator number and first cohomology of a finitely generated pro-p group ($d(G)={\dim }_{{\mathbb{F}}_p}{H}^1(G,{\mathbb{F}}_p)$)

For a finitely generated pro-p group, its profinite Frattini subgroup has finite elementary abelian quotient. Continuous group homomorphisms to ${\mathbb{F}}_p$ are precisely the linear functionals on this quotient. The topological generation criterion identifies a minimal generating set with a basis, giving the displayed equality. Finite generation is essential when generator number means the least cardinality of an unrestricted dense generating family.

Let $I$ be the set of infinite binary sequences and $G={\mathbb{F}}_p^I$ with its product topology. Index the finite binary strings by the positive integers. For each $n$, take the element whose $r$ coordinate is one exactly when the $n$th string is a prefix of $r$. These countably many elements generate a dense subgroup: given finitely many distinct sequences, sufficiently long prefixes distinguish them individually. No finite family generates $G$, so its topological generator number is countable. Every continuous linear functional depends on finitely many coordinates, however, so $H^1(G,{\mathbb{F}}_p)$ has a basis of size $|I|=2^{{\aleph }_0}$. Thus the arbitrary-rank identity is false for unrestricted topological generating sets.