What is known about countable subgroups of compact groups? More precisely, what countable groups can be embedded into compact groups (I mean just an injective homomorphism, I don't consider any topology on the countable group)? In particular, can one embed S\_\infty^{fin} (the group of permutations with finite support) into a compact group? Any simple examples of a countable group that can't be embedded into a compact group?



Countable subgroups of compact groups
Your questions are related to [Bohr compactification](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohr_compactification), a left adjoint to the inclusion of compact (= compact Hausdorff) groups into all topological groups. A discrete group G can be embedded into a compact group iff the natural map from G to its Bohr compactification is an injection. Such groups are called "maximally almost periodic". Take a look at [this paper](http://www.math.wisc.edu/~kunen/gpbohr.ps) for a more in-depth treatment. An example from that paper of a countable group which cannot be embedded into a compact group is SL(n, K) for n ≥ 2 and K an infinite countable field.


