b asic t opology - pennsylvania state university（b asic t opologyu2014u2014宾夕法尼亚州立大学）.pdf

CHAPTER 1 BASIC TOPOLOGY Topology, sometimes referred to as “the mathematics of continuity”, or “rubber sheet geometry”, or “the theory of abstract topological spaces”, is all of these, but, above all, it is a language, used by mathematicians in practically all branches of our science. In this chapter, we will learn the basic words and expressions of this language as well as its “grammar”, i.e. the most general notions, methods and basic results of topology. We will also start building the “library” of examples, both “nice and natural” such as manifolds or the Cantor set, other more complicated and even pathological. Those examples often possess other structures in addition to topology and this provides the key link between topology and other branches of geometry. They will serve as illustrations and the testing ground for the notions and methods developed in later chapters. 1.1. Topological spaces The notion of topological space is defined by means of rather simple and abstract axioms. It is very useful as an “umbrella” concept which al- lows to use the geometric language and the geometric way of thinking in a broad variety of vastly different situations. Because of the simplicity and elasticity of this notion, very little can be said about topological spaces in full generality. And so, as we go along, we will impose additional restric- tions on topological spaces, which will enable us to obtain meaningful but still quite general assertions, useful in many different situations in the most varied parts of mathematics. 1.1.1. Basic definitions and first examples. DEFINITION 1.1.1. A topological space is a pair (X , T ) where X is a set and T is a family of subsets of X (called the topology of X) whose elements are called open sets such that (1) , X T (the empty set and X itself are open),