Separation axioms in topological spaces |
|
---|---|
Kolmogorov classification | |
T0 | (Kolmogorov) |
T1 | (Fréchet) |
T2 | (Hausdorff) |
T2½ | (Urysohn) |
completely T2 | (completely Hausdorff) |
T3 | (regular Hausdorff) |
T3½ | (Tychonoff) |
T4 | (normal Hausdorff) |
T5 | (completely normal Hausdorff) |
T6 | (perfectly normal Hausdorff) |
History |
In topology and related branches of mathematics, a topological space X is a T0 space or Kolmogorov space (named after Andrey Kolmogorov) if for every pair of distinct points of X, at least one of them has a neighborhood not containing the other. In a T0 space, all points are topologically distinguishable.
This condition, called the T0 condition, is the weakest of the separation axioms. Nearly all topological spaces normally studied in mathematics are T0 spaces. In particular, all T1 spaces, i.e., all spaces in which for every pair of distinct points, each has a neighborhood not containing the other, are T0 spaces. This includes all T2 (or Hausdorff) spaces, i.e., all topological spaces in which distinct points have disjoint neighbourhoods. Given any topological space one can construct a T0 space by identifying topologically indistinguishable points.
T0 spaces that are not T1 spaces are exactly those spaces for which the specialization preorder is a nontrivial partial order. Such spaces naturally occur in computer science, specifically in denotational semantics.
A T0 space is a topological space in which every pair of distinct points is topologically distinguishable. That is, for any two different points x and y there is an open set which contains one of these points and not the other.
Note that topologically distinguishable points are automatically distinct. On the other hand, if the singleton sets {x} and {y} are separated, then the points x and y must be topologically distinguishable. That is,