Profinite group Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
A profinite group is an inverse limit of finite discrete groups. Equivalently, it is a compact Hausdorff totally disconnected topological group.
If is a discrete subgroup of a topological group , then left translation by is a covering-space action. Choose an identity neighbourhood with ; the translates are pairwise disjoint, and the quotient map restricts to a homeomorphism on each translate.
Topological generating set Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
A subset of a topological group topologically generates it when the ordinary subgroup is dense.
Unit quaternion 2026-10-07
A quaternion of norm is a unit quaternion. They form the topological group and identify with the sphere . Multiplication and inversion preserve the norm. The Hurewicz theorem identifies with ; hence homotopy-group addition in a topological group shows that has mapping degree , rather than .