Uniqueness in Structure Theorems for LCA Groups

Abstract

The classical Pontrjagin-van Kampen structure theorem states that any locally compact abelian (LCA) group G can be written as the direct product of a vector group Rm (where R denotes the additive group of real numbers with the usual topology, and m is a non-negative integer) and an LCA group H which contains a compact open subgroup. This important theorem, which van Kampen deduced from the work of Pontrjagin, was first stated and proved in [5, p. 461].