In mathematics, an extremally disconnected space is a
topological space
In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a geometrical space in which closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric distance. More specifically, a topological space is a set whose elements are called po ...
in which the closure of every open set is open. (The term "extremally disconnected" is correct, even though the word "extremally" does not appear in most dictionaries, and is sometimes mistaken by spellcheckers for the
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
''extremely disconnected''.)
An extremally disconnected space that is also
compact
Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to:
* Interstate compact
* Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines
* Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in Briti ...
and
Hausdorff is sometimes called a Stonean space. This is not the same as a
Stone space In topology and related areas of mathematics, a Stone space, also known as a profinite space or profinite set, is a compact totally disconnected Hausdorff space. Stone spaces are named after Marshall Harvey Stone who introduced and studied them in ...
, which is a
totally disconnected
In topology and related branches of mathematics, a totally disconnected space is a topological space that has only singletons as connected subsets. In every topological space, the singletons (and, when it is considered connected, the empty set ...
compact Hausdorff space. Every Stonean space is a Stone space, but not vice versa. In the duality between Stone spaces and
Boolean algebra
In mathematics and mathematical logic, Boolean algebra is a branch of algebra. It differs from elementary algebra in two ways. First, the values of the variables are the truth values ''true'' and ''false'', usually denoted 1 and 0, whereas i ...
s, the Stonean spaces correspond to the
complete Boolean algebras.
An extremally disconnected
first-countable
In topology, a branch of mathematics, a first-countable space is a topological space satisfying the "first axiom of countability". Specifically, a space X is said to be first-countable if each point has a countable neighbourhood basis (local base ...
collectionwise Hausdorff space must be
discrete
Discrete may refer to:
*Discrete particle or quantum in physics, for example in quantum theory
*Discrete device, an electronic component with just one circuit element, either passive or active, other than an integrated circuit
*Discrete group, a g ...
. In particular, for
metric space
In mathematics, a metric space is a set together with a notion of '' distance'' between its elements, usually called points. The distance is measured by a function called a metric or distance function. Metric spaces are the most general set ...
s, the property of being extremally disconnected (the closure of every open set is open) is equivalent to the property of being discrete (every set is open).
Examples
* Every
discrete space
In topology, a discrete space is a particularly simple example of a topological space or similar structure, one in which the points form a , meaning they are '' isolated'' from each other in a certain sense. The discrete topology is the finest to ...
is extremally disconnected. Every
indiscrete space In topology, a topological space with the trivial topology is one where the only open sets are the empty set and the entire space. Such spaces are commonly called indiscrete, anti-discrete, concrete or codiscrete. Intuitively, this has the conseque ...
is both extremally disconnected and connected.
* The
Stone–Čech compactification In the mathematical discipline of general topology, Stone–Čech compactification (or Čech–Stone compactification) is a technique for constructing a universal map from a topological space ''X'' to a compact Hausdorff space ''βX''. The Stone ...
of a discrete space is extremally disconnected.
* The
spectrum
A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors ...
of an
abelian von Neumann algebra is extremally disconnected.
* Any commutative
AW*-algebra is isomorphic to
where
is extremally disconnected, compact and Hausdorff.
* Any infinite space with the
cofinite topology
In mathematics, a cofinite subset of a set X is a subset A whose complement in X is a finite set. In other words, A contains all but finitely many elements of X. If the complement is not finite, but it is countable, then one says the set is cocou ...
is both extremally disconnected and
connected
Connected may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Connected'' (2008 film), a Hong Kong remake of the American movie ''Cellular''
* '' Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology'', a 2011 documentary film
* ''Connected'' (2015 TV ...
. More generally, every
hyperconnected space
In 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 pre ...
is extremally disconnected.
* The space on three points with
base provides a
finite
Finite is the opposite of infinite. It may refer to:
* Finite number (disambiguation)
* Finite set, a set whose cardinality (number of elements) is some natural number
* Finite verb
Traditionally, a finite verb (from la, fīnītus, past particip ...
example of a space that is both extremally disconnected and connected. Another example is given by the
sierpinski space, since it is finite, connected, and hyperconnected.
Equivalent characterizations
A theorem due to says that the
projective object In category theory, the notion of a projective object generalizes the notion of a projective module. Projective objects in abelian categories are used in homological algebra. The dual notion of a projective object is that of an injective object.
...
s of the
category of compact Hausdorff spaces are exactly the extremally disconnected compact Hausdorff spaces. A simplified proof of this fact is given by .
A compact Hausdorff space is extremally disconnected if and only if it is a
retract of the Stone–Čech compactification of a discrete space.
Applications
proves the
Riesz–Markov–Kakutani representation theorem
In mathematics, the Riesz–Markov–Kakutani representation theorem relates linear functionals on spaces of continuous functions on a locally compact space to measures in measure theory. The theorem is named for who introduced it for continuo ...
by reducing it to the case of extremally disconnected spaces, in which case the representation theorem can be proved by elementary means.
See also
*
Totally disconnected space
In topology and related branches of mathematics, a totally disconnected space is a topological space that has only singletons as connected subsets. In every topological space, the singletons (and, when it is considered connected, the empty set ...
References
*
*
*
*
*
* {{Citation, last=Semadeni, first=Zbigniew, title=Banach spaces of continuous functions. Vol. I, publisher=PWN---Polish Scientific Publishers, Warsaw, year=1971, mr=0296671
Properties of topological spaces