In mathematics, specifically general topology, compactness is a property that seeks to generalize the notion of a closed and bounded subset of Euclidean space. The idea is that a compact space has no "punctures" or "missing endpoints", i.e., it includes all limiting values of points. For example, the open interval (0,1) would not be compact because it excludes the limiting values of 0 and 1, whereas the closed interval [0,1] would be compact. Similarly, the space of rational numbers is not compact, because it has infinitely many "punctures" corresponding to the irrational numbers, and the space of real numbers is not compact either, because it excludes the two limiting values and . However, the extended real number linewould be compact, since it contains both infinities. There are many ways to make this heuristic notion precise. These ways usually agree in a metric space, but may not be equivalent in other topological spaces.
In topology and related areas of mathematics, a metrizable space is a topological space that is homeomorphic to a metric space. That is, a topological space is said to be metrizable if there is a metric such that the topology induced by is Metrization theorems are theorems that give sufficient conditions for a topological space to be metrizable.
This is a glossary of some terms used in the branch of mathematics known as topology. Although there is no absolute distinction between different areas of topology, the focus here is on general topology. The following definitions are also fundamental to algebraic topology, differential topology and geometric topology. For a list of terms specific to algebraic topology, see Glossary of algebraic topology.
In topology and related branches of mathematics, a normal space is a topological space X that satisfies Axiom T4: every two disjoint closed sets of X have disjoint open neighborhoods. A normal Hausdorff space is also called a T4 space. These conditions are examples of separation axioms and their further strengthenings define completely normal Hausdorff spaces, or T5 spaces, and perfectly normal Hausdorff spaces, or T6 spaces.
In mathematics, a paracompact space is a topological space in which every open cover has an open refinement that is locally finite. These spaces were introduced by Dieudonné (1944). Every compact space is paracompact. Every paracompact Hausdorff space is normal, and a Hausdorff space is paracompact if and only if it admits partitions of unity subordinate to any open cover. Sometimes paracompact spaces are defined so as to always be Hausdorff.
In mathematics, a Lindelöf space is a topological space in which every open cover has a countable subcover. The Lindelöf property is a weakening of the more commonly used notion of compactness, which requires the existence of a finite subcover.
In mathematics, and more particularly in set theory, a cover of a set is a family of subsets of whose union is all of . More formally, if is an indexed family of subsets , then is a cover of if . Thus the collection is a cover of if each element of belongs to at least one of the subsets .
In mathematics, the Lebesgue covering dimension or topological dimension of a topological space is one of several different ways of defining the dimension of the space in a topologically invariant way.
In topology, a second-countable space, also called a completely separable space, is a topological space whose topology has a countable base. More explicitly, a topological space is second-countable if there exists some countable collection of open subsets of such that any open subset of can be written as an union of elements of some subfamily of . A second-countable space is said to satisfy the second axiom of countability. Like other countability axioms, the property of being second-countable restricts the number of open sets that a space can have.
In mathematics, specifically in the study of topology and open covers of a topological space X, a star refinement is a particular kind of refinement of an open cover of X. A related concept is the notion of barycentric refinement.
In topology and related areas of mathematics, a topological property or topological invariant is a property of a topological space that is invariant under homeomorphisms. Alternatively, a topological property is a proper class of topological spaces which is closed under homeomorphisms. That is, a property of spaces is a topological property if whenever a space X possesses that property every space homeomorphic to X possesses that property. Informally, a topological property is a property of the space that can be expressed using open sets.
In topology and related branches of mathematics, total-boundedness is a generalization of compactness for circumstances in which a set is not necessarily closed. A totally bounded set can be covered by finitely many subsets of every fixed “size”.
In topology, a branch of mathematics, a retraction is a continuous mapping from a topological space into a subspace that preserves the position of all points in that subspace. The subspace is then called a retract of the original space. A deformation retraction is a mapping that captures the idea of continuously shrinking a space into a subspace.
In mathematics, especially general topology and analysis, an exhaustion by compact sets of a topological space is a nested sequence of compact subsets of ; i.e.
In 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.
In mathematics, in the field of general topology, a topological space is said to be orthocompact if every open cover has an interior-preserving open refinement. That is, given an open cover of the topological space, there is a refinement that is also an open cover, with the further property that at any point, the intersection of all open sets in the refinement containing that point is also open.
In topology and other branches of mathematics, a topological space X is locally connected if every point admits a neighbourhood basis consisting of open connected sets.
In mathematics a topological space is called countably compact if every countable open cover has a finite subcover.
In mathematics, a topological space is called collectionwise normal if for every discrete family Fi (i ∈ I) of closed subsets of there exists a pairwise disjoint family of open sets Ui (i ∈ I), such that Fi ⊆ Ui. Here a family of subsets of is called discrete when every point of has a neighbourhood that intersects at most one of the sets from . An equivalent definition of collectionwise normal demands that the above Ui (i ∈ I) themselves form a discrete family, which is stronger than pairwise disjoint.
A collection of subsets of a topological space is said to be locally finite if each point in the space has a neighbourhood that intersects only finitely many of the sets in the collection.
