Topology Of Transitive Transformation Groups

An advanced monograph on the subject of topological transformation groups, this volume summarizes important research conducted during a period of lively activity in this area of mathematics. The book is of particular note because it represents the culmination of research by authors Deane Montgomery and Leo Zippin, undertaken in collaboration with Andrew Gleason of Harvard University, that led to their solution of a well-known mathematical conjecture, Hilbert's Fifth Problem. The treatment begins with an examination of topological spaces and groups and proceeds to locally compact groups and groups with no small subgroups. Subsequent chapters address approximation by Lie groups and transformation groups, concluding with an exploration of compact transformation groups.

Let T be an abstract group, (beta T, T) the betac mpactificati n of T regarded as a transformation group with phase group T. The collection of all point transitive transformati n groups (X, T) with compact phase space X is studied by representing each such X as a set of homomorphisms of certain subalgebras of C(beta T) into C(beta T). (Author).

Historically, applications of algebraic topology to the study of topological transformation groups were originated in the work of L. E. 1. Brouwer on periodic transformations and, a little later, in the beautiful fixed point theorem ofP. A. Smith for prime periodic maps on homology spheres. Upon comparing the fixed point theorem of Smith with its predecessors, the fixed point theorems of Brouwer and Lefschetz, one finds that it is possible, at least for the case of homology spheres, to upgrade the conclusion of mere existence (or non-existence) to the actual determination of the homology type of the fixed point set, if the map is assumed to be prime periodic. The pioneer result of P. A. Smith clearly suggests a fruitful general direction of studying topological transformation groups in the framework of algebraic topology. Naturally, the immediate problems following the Smith fixed point theorem are to generalize it both in the direction of replacing the homology spheres by spaces of more general topological types and in the direction of replacing the group tl by more general compact groups.

Originally published: New York: Interscience Publishers, Inc., 1955. An unabridged republication of: Huntington, New York: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, 1974.