Local compactness in free topological groups

We show that the subspace An(X) of the free Abelian topological group A(X) on a Tychonoff space X is locally compact for each n ω if and only if A2(X) is locally compact if an only if F2(X) is locally compact if and only if X is the topological sum of a compact space and a discrete space. It is also proved that the subspace Fn(X) of the free topological group F(X) is locally compact for each n ω if and only if F4(X) is locally compact if and only if Fn(X) has pointwise countable type for each n ω if and only if F4(X) has pointwise countable type if and only if X is either compact or discrete, thus refining a result by Pestov and Yamada. We further show that An(X) has pointwise countable type for each n ω if and only if A2(X) has pointwise countable type if and only if F2(X) has pointwise countable type if and only if there exists a compact set C of countable character in X such that the complement X \ C is discrete. Finally, we show that F2(X) is locally compact if and only if F3(X) is locally compact, and that F2(X) has pointwise countable type if and only if F3(X) has pointwise countable type.