Closure (topology)In topology, the closure of a subset S of points in a topological space consists of all points in S together with all limit points of S. The closure of S may equivalently be defined as the union of S and its boundary, and also as the intersection of all closed sets containing S. Intuitively, the closure can be thought of as all the points that are either in S or "very near" S. A point which is in the closure of S is a point of closure of S. The notion of closure is in many ways dual to the notion of interior.
Cofinal (mathematics)In mathematics, a subset of a preordered set is said to be cofinal or frequent in if for every it is possible to find an element in that is "larger than " (explicitly, "larger than " means ). Cofinal subsets are very important in the theory of directed sets and nets, where “cofinal subnet” is the appropriate generalization of "subsequence".
Base (topology)In mathematics, a base (or basis; : bases) for the topology τ of a topological space (X, τ) is a family of open subsets of X such that every open set of the topology is equal to the union of some sub-family of . For example, the set of all open intervals in the real number line is a basis for the Euclidean topology on because every open interval is an open set, and also every open subset of can be written as a union of some family of open intervals. Bases are ubiquitous throughout topology.
UltrafilterIn the mathematical field of order theory, an ultrafilter on a given partially ordered set (or "poset") is a certain subset of namely a maximal filter on that is, a proper filter on that cannot be enlarged to a bigger proper filter on If is an arbitrary set, its power set ordered by set inclusion, is always a Boolean algebra and hence a poset, and ultrafilters on are usually called . An ultrafilter on a set may be considered as a finitely additive measure on .
Directed setIn mathematics, a directed set (or a directed preorder or a filtered set) is a nonempty set together with a reflexive and transitive binary relation (that is, a preorder), with the additional property that every pair of elements has an upper bound. In other words, for any and in there must exist in with and A directed set's preorder is called a direction. The notion defined above is sometimes called an . A is defined analogously, meaning that every pair of elements is bounded below.
Filters in topologyFilters in topology, a subfield of mathematics, can be used to study topological spaces and define all basic topological notions such as convergence, continuity, compactness, and more. Filters, which are special families of subsets of some given set, also provide a common framework for defining various types of limits of functions such as limits from the left/right, to infinity, to a point or a set, and many others. Special types of filters called have many useful technical properties and they may often be used in place of arbitrary filters.
Subnet (mathematics)In topology and related areas of mathematics, a subnet is a generalization of the concept of subsequence to the case of nets. The analogue of "subsequence" for nets is the notion of a "subnet". The definition is not completely straightforward, but is designed to allow as many theorems about subsequences to generalize to nets as possible. There are three non-equivalent definitions of "subnet". The first definition of a subnet was introduced by John L.
UltraproductThe ultraproduct is a mathematical construction that appears mainly in abstract algebra and mathematical logic, in particular in model theory and set theory. An ultraproduct is a quotient of the direct product of a family of structures. All factors need to have the same signature. The ultrapower is the special case of this construction in which all factors are equal. For example, ultrapowers can be used to construct new fields from given ones. The hyperreal numbers, an ultrapower of the real numbers, are a special case of this.
Boolean prime ideal theoremIn mathematics, the Boolean prime ideal theorem states that ideals in a Boolean algebra can be extended to prime ideals. A variation of this statement for filters on sets is known as the ultrafilter lemma. Other theorems are obtained by considering different mathematical structures with appropriate notions of ideals, for example, rings and prime ideals (of ring theory), or distributive lattices and maximal ideals (of order theory). This article focuses on prime ideal theorems from order theory.
Cauchy spaceIn general topology and analysis, a Cauchy space is a generalization of metric spaces and uniform spaces for which the notion of Cauchy convergence still makes sense. Cauchy spaces were introduced by H. H. Keller in 1968, as an axiomatic tool derived from the idea of a Cauchy filter, in order to study completeness in topological spaces. The of Cauchy spaces and Cauchy continuous maps is Cartesian closed, and contains the category of proximity spaces. Throughout, is a set, denotes the power set of and all filters are assumed to be proper/non-degenerate (i.