General topologyIn mathematics, general topology (or point set topology) is the branch of topology that deals with the basic set-theoretic definitions and constructions used in topology. It is the foundation of most other branches of topology, including differential topology, geometric topology, and algebraic topology. The fundamental concepts in point-set topology are continuity, compactness, and connectedness: Continuous functions, intuitively, take nearby points to nearby points.
Alexandrov topologyIn topology, an Alexandrov topology is a topology in which the intersection of every family of open sets is open. It is an axiom of topology that the intersection of every finite family of open sets is open; in Alexandrov topologies the finite restriction is dropped. A set together with an Alexandrov topology is known as an Alexandrov-discrete space or finitely generated space. Alexandrov topologies are uniquely determined by their specialization preorders.
Field of setsIn mathematics, a field of sets is a mathematical structure consisting of a pair consisting of a set and a family of subsets of called an algebra over that contains the empty set as an element, and is closed under the operations of taking complements in finite unions, and finite intersections. Fields of sets should not be confused with fields in ring theory nor with fields in physics. Similarly the term "algebra over " is used in the sense of a Boolean algebra and should not be confused with algebras over fields or rings in ring theory.
Homotopy groupIn mathematics, homotopy groups are used in algebraic topology to classify topological spaces. The first and simplest homotopy group is the fundamental group, denoted which records information about loops in a space. Intuitively, homotopy groups record information about the basic shape, or holes, of a topological space. To define the n-th homotopy group, the base-point-preserving maps from an n-dimensional sphere (with base point) into a given space (with base point) are collected into equivalence classes, called homotopy classes.
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.
Locally finite collectionA 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. In the mathematical field of topology, local finiteness is a property of collections of subsets of a topological space. It is fundamental in the study of paracompactness and topological dimension. Note that the term locally finite has different meanings in other mathematical fields. A finite collection of subsets of a topological space is locally finite.
Hyperconnected spaceIn the mathematical field of topology, a hyperconnected space or irreducible space is a topological space X that cannot be written as the union of two proper closed sets (whether disjoint or non-disjoint). The name irreducible space is preferred in algebraic geometry. For a topological space X the following conditions are equivalent: No two nonempty open sets are disjoint. X cannot be written as the union of two proper closed sets. Every nonempty open set is dense in X. The interior of every proper closed set is empty.
Pseudocompact spaceIn mathematics, in the field of topology, a topological space is said to be pseudocompact if its image under any continuous function to R is bounded. Many authors include the requirement that the space be completely regular in the definition of pseudocompactness. Pseudocompact spaces were defined by Edwin Hewitt in 1948. For a Tychonoff space X to be pseudocompact requires that every locally finite collection of non-empty open sets of X be finite.
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.
Dense setIn topology and related areas of mathematics, a subset A of a topological space X is said to be dense in X if every point of X either belongs to A or else is arbitrarily "close" to a member of A — for instance, the rational numbers are a dense subset of the real numbers because every real number either is a rational number or has a rational number arbitrarily close to it (see Diophantine approximation). Formally, is dense in if the smallest closed subset of containing is itself.
Path (topology)In mathematics, a path in a topological space is a continuous function from the closed unit interval into Paths play an important role in the fields of topology and mathematical analysis. For example, a topological space for which there exists a path connecting any two points is said to be path-connected. Any space may be broken up into path-connected components. The set of path-connected components of a space is often denoted One can also define paths and loops in pointed spaces, which are important in homotopy theory.