A subgroup H of a topological abelian group X is said to be characterized by a sequence v of characters of X if H={x∈X:v_n(x)→0 in T}. We study the basic properties of characterized subgroups in the general setting, extending results known in the compact case. For a better description, we isolate various types of characterized subgroups. Moreover, we introduce the relevant class of auto-characterized groups (namely, the groups that are characterized subgroups of themselves by means of a sequence of non-null characters); in the case of locally compact abelian groups, these are proven to be exactly the non-compact ones. As a by-product of our results, we find a complete description of the characterized subgroups of discrete abelian groups.
