Complexity and Polishability of characterized subgroups on the unit circle

Abstract

Given an ideal $\mathcal I$ on $\omega$, a subgroup $H$ of the unit circle $\mathbb T$ is said to be $\mathcal I$-characterized if there exists a sequence of integers $(a_n:n\in\omega)$ such that $$ H= \left\{ x\in\mathbb T: \mathcal I\text{-}\lim_{n\to\infty}a_nx=0 \right\}. $$ We investigate the descriptive complexity and Polishability of these subgroups in terms of the structural and topological properties of the ideal $\mathcal I$. Our main structural result shows that $\mathcal{I}$ is an analytic $P$-ideal if and only if all $\mathcal I$-characterized subgroups are Polishable. In such case, we explicitly describe a compatible finer Polish group topology. Using results on Polishable subgroups, we obtain a trichotomy for their possible Borel complexities. If $\mathcal{I}$ is a generalized density ideal, we show the sharper dichotomy that every proper $\mathcal I$-characterized subgroup is either countable or $F_{\sigma\delta}$-complete. We also prove that this fails for general analytic $P$-ideals by constructing a subgroup characterized by a summable ideal which is neither $F_\sigma$ nor $F_{\sigma\delta}$-complete. Finally, we give explicit descriptions of the subgroups associated with the sequences of powers, the Fibonacci sequence, and the sequence of factorials. We conclude with several open questions.