$(X/H)/(G/H)=X/G$? Here $G$ is a topological group acting continuously on $X$, $H$ is a closed normal subgroup of $G$.

general-topologygroup-actionstopological-groups

Let $G$ be a topological group acting continuously on a topological space $X$ (on the left, denoted by $g\cdot x$, $g\in G, x\in X$), $H$ be a closed normal subgroup of $G$. Then

  1. The quotient group $G/H = \{gH\mid g\in G\}$ becomes a topological group when given the quotient topology.

  2. The continuous group action of $G$ on $X$ induces a quotient topology on the orbit space $X/G:=\{G\cdot x \mid x\in X\}$. The quotient space $X/H$ is defined in the same way.

  3. The continuous group action of $G$ on $X$ induces a (left) continuous group action of $G/H$ on $X/H$ by:
    $$gH\cdot (H\cdot x) := H\cdot(g\cdot x),\quad x\in X, g\in G.$$
    This action also induces a quotient topological space $(X/H)/(G/H)$.


The natural question is, what relations are there between $(X/H)/(G/H)$ and $X/G$? It's easy to verify that they are the same set, and the quotient topology on $(X/H)/(G/H)$ is coarser than that on $X/G$ (by the universal property of quotient topology).

So what I'm wondering is whether the two quotient topologies are the same…

Best Answer

Actually the two quotient topologies are the same. Just using the more detailed universal property of quotient topology presented in Munkres' topology book, Theorem 22.2.

PS: This conclusion may be referred to as the third isomorphism theorem.

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