Topological space
A topological space is the fundamental subject of the subdiscipline topology of mathematics. By introducing a topological structure on a set, it is possible to establish.
- intuitive positional relations like "proximity" and
- "convergence against" from the real numbers
or from the
, respectively.
to many and very general structures (such as the topology of function spaces).
Definition: topology
A topology is a set system
consisting of subsets (open sets) of a basic set
for which the following axioms are satisfied.
- (T1)

- (T2)
for all
.
- (T3) For any index set
and
for all
holds:
.
A set
together with a topology
on
is called topological space
.
By defining all open sets in
by the topology
, all closed sets are also defined as complements of an open set
.

Definition - open kernel of a set
Let
be in the topological space
, then the open core
is defined as the "largest" open set contained in
:

Since in the definition
is represented as the union of open sets
,
open by axiom (T3).
Definition - connection of a set
Let
be in the topological space
, then the closure
is defined as the "smallest" closed set containing
:

Since in the definition
is represented as the intersection of closed sets
with
,
is again open as the completion of any union of open sets, since it holds again according to (T3):

Definition - Boundary of a set
Let
be a set in the topological space
, then the edge of a set from the closure of the set
without the open core
of
. The boundary is therefore defined as follows:
.
The sets
are by definition open and mutually the two sets form the complements of each other. Thus these two sets are both open and closed at the same time. Therefore, the two sets have no boundary points.
Definition - Neighbourhood
Let
and
be a set in a topological space
, then the
is called Neighbourhood of
if there exists an open set
with:

The set of all Neighbourhood of
with respect to the topology
is denoted by
.
denotes the set of all open neighbourhoods of
.
Definition - Neighbourhood basis
Let
and
a set system in a topological space
, then the \mathcal{B} is called the neighbourhood basis of
if the following properties hold:
- (B1)

- (B2) for each environment
a neighborhood
with
.
Example
The set of open
neighbourhood
in
with the Euclidean topology
generated by the amount
is an neighbourhood basis of
.
The neighbourhood basis term helps to prove convergence statements for the neighbourhood basis only, and thus to obtain the statements for arbitrary neighbourhoods as well. In calculus one uses
-neighbourhoods in definitions without explicitly addressing the topological aspect of the neighbourhood basis, that proofs in general arbitrary neighbourhoods and not only for the neighbourhood basis. Due to the fact that an arbitrary neighbourhood contains a set of the neighbourhood basis, the most of the convergence proofs can limit themselves to the neighbourhood basis.
Definition - base of topology
Let
and
be a set system in a topological space
, then the
is called the basis of
if holds:
- (BT1)

- (BT2) for every open set
there is an open set
with
.
Example
The set of all open intervals
is a basis of the topology in the topological
with the Euclidean topology
generated by the amount
.
Convergence in topological spaces
In calculus, the convergence of sequences is a central definition to define notions based on it, such as continuity, difference, and integrals. Sequences
with
as index set are unsuitable to define convergence in general topological spaces, because the index set
is not powerful enough concerning the neighbourhood basis. This is only possible if the topological space has a countable neighbourhood basis. Therefore one goes over either to nets or Filters
Example: topology on texts
Usually, one assumes that topologies are defined on mathematical spaces (e.g., number spaces, function spaces, (topological) groups, vector spaces, ...). However, the generality of the definition makes it also possible to define a topology on texts. This example was added because purely descriptively, e.g., texts in the German language
- can have a similar statement and
- use different words.
This similarity of semantics, or syntax, is explored in more detail as an exercise in "Topology on Texts".
Describe similarity of words by metrics
From spoken words, represent the number of letters and the set of occurring letters as a table. How can you derive a distance of words from the tabulated list. make a suggestion for this. What are the properties of your proposed distance function. Is it a metric on the space of words?
Task - distance between words
- Consider the words "bucket", "buket", "buckett". How can you express the differences of the words by a metric
- Phonetic similarity words "bucket" and "pucket" have a phonetic similarity, but from the sequence of letters the spellings differ greatly. How can you notate similarity of spoken words (Speech Recognition) by a phonetic notation and in this notation of phonemes express a similarity of words as well.
Classification of topological spaces
Meaning of Properties topology
- (T1)
empty set and the basic set
are open sets.
- (T2)
for all
: the average of finitely many open sets is an open set.
- (T3) The union of any many open sets is again an open set.
Semantics: metric
A metric
associates with
two elements
from a base space
the distance
between
and
.
Definition: Metric
Let
be an arbitrary set. A mapping
is called a metric on
if for any elements
,
and
of
the following axioms are satisfied:
- (M1) separation:
,
- (M2) symmetry:
,
- (M3) triangle inequality:
.
Illustration: metric triangle inequality
According to the triangle inequality, the distance between two points X,Y is at most as large as sum of the distances from X to Z and from Z to Y, that is, a detour via the point Z
Non-negativity
Non-negativity follows from the three properties of the metric, i.e. for all
holds.
. The non-negativity follows from the other properties with:
.
Open sets in metric spaces
- In a metric space
, one defines a set
to be open (i.e.
) if for every
there is a
that the
-sphere
lies entirely in
(i.e. i.e.
)
- Show that with this defined
, the pair
is a topological space (i.e., (T1), (T2), (T3) satisfied).
Norm on vector spaces
A norm is a mapping
from a vector space
over the body
of the real or the complex numbers into the set of nonnegative real numbers
. Here the norm assigns to each vector
its length
.
Definition: Norm
Let
be a
vector space and
a mapping.
If
satisfies the following axioms axioms N1,N2, N3, then
is called a norm on
.
- (N1) Definiteness:
for all
,
- (N2) absolute homogeneity:
for all
and
.
- (N3) Triangle inequality:
for all
.
The property (N1) is actually an equivalence and it holds in any normed space. If
is the zero vector in
and
is the zero in the field
, if
is a
vector space).
- (N1)' definiteness:
for all
,
- Since one uses a minimality principle for definitions for the defining property, one would not use a stronger formulation (N1)' in the definition for (N1), since the equivalence from the defining properties of the norm follow the properties of the vector space already for any normed space.

Normed space / Metric space
A normed space
is also a metric space.
- A norm
assigns to a vector
its vector length
.
- The norm
can be used to define a metric via
that specifies the distance between
and
.
Learning Task: generate metric from given norm
Let
be a normed space with norm
.
Show that the defined mapping
with
satisfies the properties of a metric.
Notation: norm
- In the axiom (N2)
,
denotes the amount of the scalar. "
" sign: Outer linkage in vector space or multiplication
.
indicates the length of the vector
.
- In (N3)
for all
. '"
"-sign denotes two distinct links (i.e., addition in
and
, respectively.
Illustration: norm triangle inequality
mini
Def: convergence in normalized space
Let
be a normalized space and
a sequence in
and
:

Def: convergence in metric space
Let
be a metric space and
a sequence in
and
:

Def: Cauchy sequences in metric spaces
Let
be a metric space and
a sequence in
.
is called a Cauchy sequence in
:

Equivalence: norms
Let two norms
and
be given on the
vector space
. The two norms are equivalent if holds:
.
Show that a sequence converges in
exactly if it also converges with respect to
.
Absolute value in complex numbers
Let
be a complex number with
. Show that
is a norm on the
vector space
!
Historical Notes: Norm
This axiomatic definition of norm was established by Stefan Banach in his 1922 dissertation. The norm symbol in use today was first used by Erhard Schmidt in 1908 as the distance
between vectors
and
.
See also
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