History of the separation axiomsThe history of the separation axioms in general topology has been convoluted, with many meanings competing for the same terms and many terms competing for the same concept. Before the current general definition of topological space, there were many definitions offered, some of which assumed (what we now think of as) some separation axioms. For example, the definition given by Felix Hausdorff in 1914 is equivalent to the modern definition plus the Hausdorff separation axiom.
CofinitenessIn mathematics, a cofinite subset of a set is a subset whose complement in is a finite set. In other words, contains all but finitely many elements of If the complement is not finite, but is countable, then one says the set is cocountable. These arise naturally when generalizing structures on finite sets to infinite sets, particularly on infinite products, as in the product topology or direct sum. This use of the prefix "" to describe a property possessed by a set's mplement is consistent with its use in other terms such as "meagre set".
Urysohn's lemmaIn topology, Urysohn's lemma is a lemma that states that a topological space is normal if and only if any two disjoint closed subsets can be separated by a continuous function. Urysohn's lemma is commonly used to construct continuous functions with various properties on normal spaces. It is widely applicable since all metric spaces and all compact Hausdorff spaces are normal. The lemma is generalised by (and usually used in the proof of) the Tietze extension theorem. The lemma is named after the mathematician Pavel Samuilovich Urysohn.
Regular spaceIn topology and related fields of mathematics, a topological space X is called a regular space if every closed subset C of X and a point p not contained in C admit non-overlapping open neighborhoods. Thus p and C can be separated by neighborhoods. This condition is known as Axiom T3. The term "T3 space" usually means "a regular Hausdorff space". These conditions are examples of separation axioms. A topological space X is a regular space if, given any closed set F and any point x that does not belong to F, there exists a neighbourhood U of x and a neighbourhood V of F that are disjoint.
Cocountable topologyThe cocountable topology or countable complement topology on any set X consists of the empty set and all cocountable subsets of X, that is all sets whose complement in X is countable. It follows that the only closed subsets are X and the countable subsets of X. Symbolically, one writes the topology as Every set X with the cocountable topology is Lindelöf, since every nonempty open set omits only countably many points of X. It is also T1, as all singletons are closed.
Separated setsIn topology and related branches of mathematics, separated sets are pairs of subsets of a given topological space that are related to each other in a certain way: roughly speaking, neither overlapping nor touching. The notion of when two sets are separated or not is important both to the notion of connected spaces (and their connected components) as well as to the separation axioms for topological spaces. Separated sets should not be confused with separated spaces (defined below), which are somewhat related but different.
Trivial topologyIn topology, a topological space with the trivial topology is one where the only open sets are the empty set and the entire space. Such spaces are commonly called indiscrete, anti-discrete, concrete or codiscrete. Intuitively, this has the consequence that all points of the space are "lumped together" and cannot be distinguished by topological means. Every indiscrete space is a pseudometric space in which the distance between any two points is zero.
Topological indistinguishabilityIn topology, two points of a topological space X are topologically indistinguishable if they have exactly the same neighborhoods. That is, if x and y are points in X, and Nx is the set of all neighborhoods that contain x, and Ny is the set of all neighborhoods that contain y, then x and y are "topologically indistinguishable" if and only if Nx = Ny. (See Hausdorff's axiomatic .) Intuitively, two points are topologically indistinguishable if the topology of X is unable to discern between the points.
Kolmogorov spaceIn topology and related branches of mathematics, a topological space X is a T0 space or Kolmogorov space (named after Andrey Kolmogorov) if for every pair of distinct points of X, at least one of them has a neighborhood not containing the other. In a T0 space, all points are topologically distinguishable. This condition, called the T0 condition, is the weakest of the separation axioms. Nearly all topological spaces normally studied in mathematics are T0 spaces. In particular, all T1 spaces, i.e.
T1 spaceDISPLAYTITLE:T1 space In topology and related branches of mathematics, a T1 space is a topological space in which, for every pair of distinct points, each has a neighborhood not containing the other point. An R0 space is one in which this holds for every pair of topologically distinguishable points. The properties T1 and R0 are examples of separation axioms. Let X be a topological space and let x and y be points in X. We say that x and y are if each lies in a neighbourhood that does not contain the other point.
