topological spaces: some heavily used invariants

topological spaces: some heavily used invariants

5.1 Separation properties

Definition. A topological space (M, O) is said to be T1 if for any two distinct points
p, q M, p 6= q:
U O : p Uq
/ U.
Definition. A topological space (M, O) is said to be T2 or Hausdorff if, for any two
distinct points, there exist non-intersecting open neighbourhoods of these two points:
p, q M : p 6= q U(p), V(q) O : U(p) V(q) = .
Example 5.1. The topological space (Rd , Ostd ) is T2 and hence also T1.
Example 5.2. The Zariski topology on an algebraic variety is T1 but not T2.
Example 5.3. The topological space (M, {, M}) does not have the T1 property since for
any p M, the only open neighbourhood of p is M and for any other q 6= p we have
q M. Moreover, since this space is not T1, it cannot be T2 either.
Remark 5.4. There are many other T properties, including a T212 property which
differs from T2 in that the neighbourhoods are closed.
5.2 Compactness and paracompactness
Definition. Let (M, O) be a topological space. A set C P(M) is called a cover (of M)
if:
[
C = M.
Additionally, it is said to an open cover if C O.
e C such that C
e is still a cover, is
Definition. Let C be a cover. Then any subset C
called a subcover. Additionally, it is said to be a finite subcover if it is finite as a set.
Definition. A topological space (M, O) is said to be compact if every open cover has a
finite subcover.
Definition. Let (M, O) be a topological space. A subset N M is called compact if the
topological space (N, O|N ) is compact.
Determining whether a set is compact or not is not an easy task. Fortunately though,
for Rd equipped with the standard topology Ostd , the following theorem greatly simplifies matters.
Theorem 5.5 (Heine-Borel). Let Rd be equipped with the standard topology Ostd . Then, a
subset of Rd is compact if, and only if, it is closed and bounded.

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topological spaces: some heavily used invariants

A subset S of Rd is said to be bounded if:
r R+ : S Br (0).
Remark 5.6. It is also possible to generalize this result to arbitrary metric spaces. A
metric space is a pair (M, d) where M is a set and d : M M R is a map such that
for any x, y, z M the following conditions hold:
i) d(x, y) > 0;
ii) d(x, y) = 0 x = y;
iii) d(x, y) = d(y, x);
iv) d(x, y) 6 d(x, z) + d(y, z).
A metric structure on a set M induces a topology Od on M by:
U Od : p U : r R+ : Br (p) U,
where the open ball in a metric space is defined as:
Br (p) := {x M | d(p, x) < r}.
In this setting, one can prove that a subset S M of a metric space (M, d) is compact
if, and only if, it is complete and totally bounded.
Example 5.7. The interval [0, 1] is compact in (R, Ostd ). The one-element set containing
(1, 2) is a cover of [0, 1], but it is also a finite subcover and hence [0, 1] is compact
from the definition. Alternatively, [0, 1] is clearly closed and bounded, and hence it is
compact by the Heine-Borel theorem.
Example 5.8. The set R is not compact in (R, Ostd ). To prove this, it suffices to show
that there exists a cover of R that does not have a finite subcover. To this end, let:
C := {(n, n + 1) | n Z} {(n + 12 , n + 32 ) | n Z}.
This corresponds to the following picture.

C
1

1/2

1/2

It is clear that removing even one element from C will cause C to fail to be an open
cover of R. Therefore, there is no finite subcover of C and hence, R is not compact.

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topological spaces: some heavily used invariants

Theorem 5.9. Let (M, OM ) and (N, ON ) be compact topological spaces. Then (M N, OMN )
is a compact topological space.
The above theorem easily extends to finite cartesian products.
Definition. Let (M, O) be a topological space and let C be a cover. A refinement of C is
a cover R such that:
U R : V C : U V.
Any subcover of a cover is a refinement of that cover, but the converse is not true in
general. A refinement R is said to be:
open if R O;
locally finite if for any p M there exists a neighbourhood U(p) such that the set:
{U R | U U(p) 6= }
is finite as a set.
Compactness is a very strong property. Hence often times it does not hold, but a
weaker and still useful property, called paracompactness, may still hold.
Definition. A topological space (M, O) is said to be paracompact if every open cover
has an open refinement that is locally finite.
Corollary 5.10. If a topological space is compact, then it is also paracompact.
Definition. A topological space (M, O) is said to be metrisable if there exists a metric d
such that the topology induced by d is precisely O, i.e. Od = O.
Theorem 5.11 (Stone). Every metrisable space is paracompact.
Example 5.12. The space (Rd , Ostd ) is metrisable since Ostd = Od where d = k k2 .
Hence it is paracompact by Stones theorem.
Remark 5.13. Paracompactness is, informally, a rather natural property since every
example of a non-paracompact space looks artificial. One such example is the long
line (or Alexandroff line). To construct it, we first observe that we could build R by
taking the interval [0, 1) and stacking countably many copies of it one after the other.
Hence, in a sense, R is equivalent to Z [0, 1). The long line L is defined analogously
as L : 1 [0, 1), where 1 is an uncountably infinite set. The resulting space L is not
paracompact.
Theorem 5.14. Let (M, OM ) be a paracompact space and let (N, ON ) be a compact space.
Then M N (equipped with the product topology) is paracompact.
Corollary 5.15. Let (M, OM ) be a paracompact space and let (Ni , ONi ) be compact spaces for
every 1 6 i 6 n. Then M N1 . . . Nn is paracompact.

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topological spaces: some heavily used invariants

Definition. Let (M, OM ) be a topological space. A partition of unity of M is a set F of
continuous maps from M to the interval [0, 1] such that for each p M the following
conditions hold:
i) there exists U(p) such that the set {f F | x U(p) : f(x) 6= 0} is finite;
P
ii)
fF f(p) = 1.
If C is an open cover, then F is said to be subordinate to the cover C if:
f F : U C : f(x) 6= 0 x U.
Theorem 5.16. Let (M, OM ) be a Hausdorff topological space. Then (M, OM ) is paracompact
if, and only if, every open cover admits a partition of unity subordinate to that cover.
Example 5.17. Let R be equipped with the standard topology. Then R is paracompact by Stones theorem. Hence, every open cover of R admits a partition of unity
subordinate to that cover. As a simple example, consider F = {f, g}, where:

0 if x 6 0
f(x) =
x2 if 0 6 x 6 1

1 if x > 1

if x 6 0
1
2
and g(x) =
1 x if 0 6 x 6 1

0
if x > 1

Then F is a partition of unity of R. Indeed, f, g : R [0, 1] are both continuous,

condition i) is satisfied since F itself is finite, and we have x R : f(x) + g(x) = 1.
Let C := {(, 1), (0, )}. Then C is an open cover of R and since:
f(x) 6= 0 x (0, )

and

g(x) 6= 0 x (, 1),

the partition of unity F is subordinate to the open cover C.

5.3 Connectedness and path-connectedness
Definition. A topological space (M, O) is said to be connected unless there exist two
non-empty, non-intersecting open sets A and B such that M = A B.
Example 5.18. Consider (R \ {0}, Ostd |R\{0} ), i.e. R \ {0} equipped with the subset topology inherited from R. This topological space is not connected since (, 0) and (0, )
are open, non-empty, non-intersecting sets such that R \ {0} = (, 0) (0, ).
Theorem 5.19. The interval [0, 1] R equipped with the subset topology is connected.
Theorem 5.20. A topological space (M, O) is connected if, and only if, the only subsets that
are both open and closed are and M.

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topological spaces: some heavily used invariants

Proof. () Suppose, for the sake of contradiction, that there exists U M such that
U is both open and closed and U
/ {, M}. Consider the sets U and M \ U.
Clearly, we have U M \ U = . Moreover, M \ U is open since U is closed.
Therefore, U and M \ U are two open, non-empty, non-intersecting sets such that
M = U M \ U, contradicting the connectedness of (M, O).
() Suppose that (M, O) is not connected. Then there exist open, non-empty, nonintersecting subsets A, B M such that M = A B. Clearly, A 6= M, otherwise
we would have B = . Moreover, since B is open, A = M \ B is closed. Hence, A
is a set which is both open and closed and a
/ {, M}.
Definition. A topological space (M, O) is said to be path-connected if for every pair of
points p, q M there exists a continuous curve : [0, 1] M such that (0) = p and
(1) = q.
Example 5.21. The space (Rd , Ostd ) is path-connected. Indeed, let p, q Rd and let:
() := p + (q p).
Then is continuous and satisfies (0) = p and (1) = q.
Example 5.22. Let S := {(x, sin( x1 )) | x (0, 1]} {(0, 0)} be equipped with the subset
topology inherited from R2 . Then (S, Ostd |S ) is connected but not path-connected.
Theorem 5.23. If a topological space is path-connected, then it is also connected.
Proof. Let (M, O) be path-connected but not connected. Then there exist open, nonempty, non-intersecting subsets A, B M such that M = A B. Let p A and q B.
Since (M, O) is path-connected, there exists a continuous curve : [0, 1] M such that
(0) = p and (1) = q. Then:
[0, 1] = preim (M) = preim (A B) = preim (A) preim (B).
The sets preim (A) and preim (B) are both open, non-empty and non-intersecting,
contradicting the fact that [0, 1] is connected.
5.4 Homotopic curves and the fundamental group
Definition. Let (M, O) be a topological space. Two curves , : [0, 1] M such that:
(0) = (0)

and (1) = (1)

are said to be homotopic if there exists a continuous map h : [0, 1] [0, 1] M such that
for all [0, 1]:
h(0, ) = () and h(1, ) = ().

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topological spaces: some heavily used invariants

Pictorially, two curves are homotopic if they can be continuously deformed into one
another.
Proposition 5.24. Let : and are homotopic. Then is an equivalence relation.
Definition. Let (M, O) be a topological space. Then, for every p M, we define the
space of loops at p by:
Lp := { : [0, 1] M | is continuous and (0) = (1)}.
Definition. Let Lp be the space of loops at p M. We define the concatenation operation : Lp Lp Lp by:

( )() :=

(2)
if 0 6 6 12
(2 1) if 12 6 6 1

Definition. Let (M, O) be a topological space. The fundamental group 1 (p) of (M, O)
at p M is the set:
1 (p) := Lp / = {[] | Lp },
where is the homotopy equivalence relation, together with the map : 1 (p)
1 (p) 1 (p) defined by:
[] [] := [ ].
Remark 5.25. Recall that a group is a pair (G, ) where G is a set and : G G G is
a map (also called binary operation) such that:
i) a, b, c G : (a b) c = a (b c);
ii) e G : g G : g e = e g = g;
iii) g G : g1 G : g g1 = g1 g = e.

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topological spaces: some heavily used invariants

A group isomorphism between two groups (G, ) and (H, ) is a bijection : G H such
that:
a, b G : (a b) = (a) (b).
If there exists a group isomorphism between (G, ) and (H, ), we say that G and H
grp H.
are (group theoretic) isomorphic and we write G =
The operation is associative (since concatenation is associative); the neutral element
of the fundamental group (1 (p), ) is (the equivalence class of) the constant curve e
defined by:
e : [0, 1] M
7 e (0) = p
Finally, for each [] 1 (p), the inverse under is the element [], where is
defined by:
: [0, 1] M
7 (1 )
All the previously discussed topological properties are boolean-valued, i.e. a topological space is either Hausdorff or not Hausdorff, either connected or not connected,
and so on. The fundamental group is a group-valued property, i.e. the value of the
property is not either yes or no, but a group.
A property of a topological space is called an invariant if any two homeomorphic
spaces share the property. A classification of topological spaces would be a list of topological invariants such that any two spaces which share these invariants are homeomorphic. As of now, no such list is known.
Example 5.26. The 2-sphere is defined as the set:
S2 := {(x, y, z) R3 | x2 + y2 + z2 = 1}
equipped with the subset topology inherited from R3 . The sphere has the property
that all the loops at any point are homotopic, hence the fundamental group (at every
point) of the sphere is the trivial group:
p S2 : 1 (p) = 1 := {[e ]}.
Example 5.27. The cylinder is defined as C := R S1 equipped with the product topology. A loop in C can either go around the cylinder (i.e. around its central axis) or not.
If it does not, then it can be continuously deformed to a point (the identity loop). If it
does, then it cannot be deformed to the identity loop (intuitively because the cylinder
is infinitely long) and hence it is a homotopically different loop. The number of times
a loop winds around the cylinder is called the winding number. Loops with different

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topological spaces: some heavily used invariants

winding numbers are not homotopic. Moreover, loops with different orientations are
also not homotopic and hence we have:
grp (Z, +).
p C : (1 (p), ) =
Example 5.28. The 2-torus is defined as the set T 2 := S1 S1 equipped with the product
topology. A loop in T 2 can intuitively wind around the cylinder-like part of the torus
as well as around the hole of the torus. That is, there are two independent winding
numbers and hence:
grp Z Z,
p T 2 : 1 (p) =
where Z Z is understood as a group under pairwise addition.

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