Profinite Group - Profinite Completion

Given an arbitrary group G, there is a related profinite group G^, the profinite completion of G. It is defined as the inverse limit of the groups G/N, where N runs through the normal subgroups in G of finite index (these normal subgroups are partially ordered by inclusion, which translates into an inverse system of natural homomorphisms between the quotients). There is a natural homomorphism η : GG^, and the image of G under this homomorphism is dense in G^. The homomorphism η is injective if and only if the group G is residually finite (i.e., where the intersection runs through all normal subgroups of finite index). The homomorphism η is characterized by the following universal property: given any profinite group H and any group homomorphism f : GH, there exists a unique continuous group homomorphism g : G^ → H with f = gη.

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