A classification of the abelian minimal closed normal subgroups of locally compact second-countable groups

Abstract: We classify the locally compact second-countable (l.c.s.c.) groups $A$ that are abelian and topologically characteristically simple. All such groups $A$ occur as the monolith of some soluble l.c.s.c. group $G$ of derived length at most $3$; with known exceptions (specifically, when $A$ is $\mathbb{Q}^n$ or its dual for some $n \in \mathbb{N}$), we can take $G$ to be compactly generated. This amounts to a classification of the possible isomorphism types of abelian chief factors of l.c.s.c. groups, which is of particular interest for the theory of compactly generated locally compact groups.