Abstract homomorphisms from locally compact groups to discrete groups

Abstract

We show that every abstract homomorphism $\varphi$ from a locally compact group $L$ to a graph product $G_\Gamma$, endowed with the discrete topology, is either continuous or $\varphi(L)$ lies in a 'small' parabolic subgroup. In particular, every locally compact group topology on a graph product whose graph is not 'small' is discrete. This extends earlier work by Morris-Nickolas. We also show the following. If $L$ is a locally compact group and if $G$ is a discrete group which contains no infinite torsion group and no infinitely generated abelian group, then every abstract homomorphism $\varphi:L\to G$ is either continuous, or $\varphi(L)$ is contained in the normalizer of a finite nontrivial subgroup of $G$. As an application we obtain results concerning the continuity of homomorphisms from locally compact groups to Artin and Coxeter groups.