Geometry of balanced and absorbing subsets of topological modules

Abstract

We define the concepts of balanced set and absorbing set in modules over topological rings, which coincide with the usual concepts when restricting to topological vector spaces. We show that in a topological module over an absolute semi-valued ring whose invertibles approach [Formula: see text], every neighborhood of [Formula: see text] is absorbing. We also introduce the concept of total closed unit neighborhood of zero (total closed unit) and prove that the only total closed unit of the quaternions [Formula: see text] is its closed unit ball [Formula: see text]. On the other hand, we also prove that if [Formula: see text] is an absolute semi-valued unital real algebra, then its closed unit ball [Formula: see text] is a total closed unit. Finally, we study the geometry of modules via the extreme points and the internal points, showing that no internal point can be an extreme point and that absorbance is equivalent to having [Formula: see text] as an internal point.