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.
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.
Unit intervalIn mathematics, the unit interval is the closed interval , that is, the set of all real numbers that are greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 1. It is often denoted I (capital letter ). In addition to its role in real analysis, the unit interval is used to study homotopy theory in the field of topology. In the literature, the term "unit interval" is sometimes applied to the other shapes that an interval from 0 to 1 could take: , , and . However, the notation I is most commonly reserved for the closed interval .
Euclidean topologyIn mathematics, and especially general topology, the Euclidean topology is the natural topology induced on -dimensional Euclidean space by the Euclidean metric. The Euclidean norm on is the non-negative function defined by Like all norms, it induces a canonical metric defined by The metric induced by the Euclidean norm is called the Euclidean metric or the Euclidean distance and the distance between points and is In any metric space, the open balls form a base for a topology on that space.
Sorgenfrey planeIn topology, the Sorgenfrey plane is a frequently-cited counterexample to many otherwise plausible-sounding conjectures. It consists of the product of two copies of the Sorgenfrey line, which is the real line under the half-open interval topology. The Sorgenfrey line and plane are named for the American mathematician Robert Sorgenfrey. A basis for the Sorgenfrey plane, denoted from now on, is therefore the set of rectangles that include the west edge, southwest corner, and south edge, and omit the southeast corner, east edge, northeast corner, north edge, and northwest corner.
Local homeomorphismIn mathematics, more specifically topology, a local homeomorphism is a function between topological spaces that, intuitively, preserves local (though not necessarily global) structure. If is a local homeomorphism, is said to be an étale space over Local homeomorphisms are used in the study of sheaves. Typical examples of local homeomorphisms are covering maps.
Metacompact spaceIn the mathematical field of general topology, a topological space is said to be metacompact if every open cover has a point-finite open refinement. That is, given any open cover of the topological space, there is a refinement that is again an open cover with the property that every point is contained only in finitely many sets of the refining cover. A space is countably metacompact if every countable open cover has a point-finite open refinement.
Particular point topologyIn mathematics, the particular point topology (or included point topology) is a topology where a set is open if it contains a particular point of the topological space. Formally, let X be any non-empty set and p ∈ X. The collection of subsets of X is the particular point topology on X. There are a variety of cases that are individually named: If X has two points, the particular point topology on X is the Sierpiński space. If X is finite (with at least 3 points), the topology on X is called the finite particular point topology.
Hilbert cubeIn mathematics, the Hilbert cube, named after David Hilbert, is a topological space that provides an instructive example of some ideas in topology. Furthermore, many interesting topological spaces can be embedded in the Hilbert cube; that is, can be viewed as subspaces of the Hilbert cube (see below).
