Math. Ann. 195, 330~331 (1972) @ Springer-Verlag 1972 A Topological Group Characterization of Those Locally Convex Spaces Having Their Weak Topology SIDNEY A. MORRIS In this note we give a surprisingly simple characterization of those locally convex topological vector spaces which have the weak topology. An application to varieties of topological groups is then given. Theorem. Let E be a locally convex Hausdorff real topological vector space. Then E has its weak topology if and only if every discrete subgroup (of the additive group structure) of E is finitely generated. Proof. If E has its weak topology then, as is well known, it is a subspace of a product of copies of the reals. Therefore, by Lemma 2 of [4], every discrete subgroup of E is finitely generated. Suppose E does not have its weak topology. If F denotes the vector space spanned by the unit vectors {e,} in the Banach space 11 then, by Theorem 1.4 of [5], F is a continuous linear image of a subspace of E. Noting that the subgroup of F generated by the {e,} has the discrete topology, we see that E has a discrete subgroup which is not finitely generated. The proof is complete. Remark. The above result is also true for complex vector spaces. It is proved in [2] that no infinite-dimensional normed vector space is in the variety of topological groups [3] generated by the class of all locally compact groups. Our corollary, below, says somewhat more. Corollary. Let ~ be the class of all locally compact groups. The locally convex Hausdorff real topological vector space E, regarded as a topological group, is in the variety generated by c~ if and only if E has its weak topology. Proof. By Theorem 4 of [1], if E is in the variety generated by then it is a subgroup of a product 1-I Fi, where each F i is a locally compact ieI Hausdorff group. Let Gi be the closure in F i of the projection of E. Clearly each Gi is a connected locally compact Hausdorff abelian group, and hence is compactly generated. Therefore, by the first corollary in [4]. 1-[ Gi, and hence E, does not contain any discrete groups which are not ieI