Math4201 Topology I (Lecture 3)
Recall form last lecture
Topological Spaces
Basis for a topology
Let be a set. A basis for a topology on is a collection (elements of are called basis elements) of subsets of such that:
- , such that
- , , such that
Example of standard basis in real numbers
Let and (collection of all open intervals).
Check properties 1:
for any , such that
Check properties 2:
let and be two basis elements, and .
Example of lower limit basis in real numbers
Let and (collection of all open intervals).
Check properties 1:
for any , such that
Check properties 2:
let and be two basis elements, and .
Extend this to .
Definition for cartesian product
Let and be sets. The cartesian product of and is the set .
Example of open rectangles basis for real plane
Let and be the collection of rectangle of the form where and . (boundary is not included)
Check properties 1:
for any , such that
Check properties 2:
let and be two basis elements, and .
Example of open disks basis for real plane
Let and be the collection of open disks.
Check properties 1:
for any , such that .
Check properties 2:
let and be two basis elements, for every , such that .
(even )
Topology generated by a basis
Let be a basis for a topology on . The topology generated by , denoted by .
such that
Proof
is a topology on because:
-
because . because such that (by definition of basis (property 1)))
-
is closed under arbitrary unions.
Want to show .
Because , such that . Since , such that .
-
is closed under finite intersections.
Want to show .
If , since , and , such that and .
Applying the second property of basis, such that .
By induction, we can show that .
Example of topology generated by a basis
Let be arbitrary.
Let (collection of all singleton subsets of ).
Then is the discrete topology.
Properties of basis in generated topology
Observation 1: Any is an open set in .
By the defining property of basis, , .
Observation 2: For any collection , .
By observation 1, each . Since is a topology, .
Lemma
Let and be a basis and the topology generated by on . Then,
there are basis elements such that .
Proof
If , we want to show that is a union of basis elements.
For any , by the definition of , there is a basis element such that .
So, .
Since , , we have .
So, .
Applies observation 2.
A basis for a topology is like a basis for a vector space in the sense that any open set/vector can be represented in terms of basis elements.
But unlike linear algebra, it’s not true that any open set can be written as a union of basis element in a unique way.