AbstractsMathematics

In this thesis, we discuss three main projects which are related to Polish groups and their actions on standard Borel spaces. In the first part, we show that the complexity of the classification problem of continua is Borel bireducible to a universal orbit equivalence relation induce by a Polish group on a standard Borel space. In the second part, we compare the relative complexity of various types of classification problems concerning subspaces of [0,1]^n for all natural number n. In the last chapter, we give a topological characterization theorem for the class of locally compact two-sided invariant non-Archimedean Polish groups. Using this theorem, we show the non-existence of a universal group and the existence of a surjectively universal group in the class. Advisors/Committee Members: Gao, Su, Jackson, Steven, Conley, Charles.