Oligomorphic groups, their automorphism groups, and the complexity of their isomorphism

Abstract

The paper establishes results following two interconnected directions. 1. Let $G$ be a Roelcke precompact closed subgroup of the group $\mathrm{Sym}(\omega)$ of permutations of the natural numbers. Let $\mathrm{Aut}(G)$ denote the group of continuous automorphisms of $G$. Then $\mathrm{Inn}(G)$ is closed in $\mathrm{Aut}(G)$, where $\mathrm{Aut}(G)$ carries the topology of pointwise convergence for its (faithful) action on the cosets of open subgroups. Under the stronger hypothesis that~$G$ is oligomorphic, $\+ N_G/G$ is profinite, where $\+ N_G$ denotes the normaliser of~$G$ in $\mathrm{Sym}(\omega)$, and the topological group $\mathrm{Out}(G)= \mathrm{Aut}(G)/\mathrm{Inn}(G)$ is totally disconnected, locally compact. 2a. We provide a general method to show smoothness of the isomorphism relation for appropriate Borel classes of oligomorphic groups. We apply it to two such classes: the oligomorphic groups with no algebraicity, and the oligomorphic groups with finitely many {essential} subgroups up to conjugacy. 2b. Using this method we also show that if $G$ is in such a Borel class, then $\mathrm{Aut}(G)$ is topologically isomorphic to an oligomorphic group, and $\mathrm{Out}(G)$ is profinite.