In
topology and related fields of
mathematics, 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 ...
''X'' is called a regular space if every
closed subset
In geometry, topology, and related branches of mathematics, a closed set is a set whose complement is an open set. In a topological space, a closed set can be defined as a set which contains all its limit points. In a complete metric space, a ...
''C'' of ''X'' and a point ''p'' not contained in ''C'' admit non-overlapping
open neighborhoods. Thus ''p'' and ''C'' can be
separated by neighborhoods. This condition is known as Axiom T
3. The term "T
3 space" usually means "a regular
Hausdorff space
In topology and related branches of mathematics, a Hausdorff space ( , ), separated space or T2 space is a topological space where, for any two distinct points, there exist neighbourhoods of each which are disjoint from each other. Of the many ...
". These conditions are examples of
separation axioms.
Definitions
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 ...
''X'' is a regular space if, given any
closed set
In geometry, topology, and related branches of mathematics, a closed set is a set whose complement is an open set. In a topological space, a closed set can be defined as a set which contains all its limit points. In a complete metric space, a ...
''F'' and any
point ''x'' that does not belong to ''F'', there exists a
neighbourhood ''U'' of ''x'' and a neighbourhood ''V'' of ''F'' that are
disjoint. Concisely put, it must be possible to
separate ''x'' and ''F'' with disjoint neighborhoods.
A or is a topological space that is both regular and a
Hausdorff space
In topology and related branches of mathematics, a Hausdorff space ( , ), separated space or T2 space is a topological space where, for any two distinct points, there exist neighbourhoods of each which are disjoint from each other. Of the many ...
. (A Hausdorff space or T
2 space is a topological space in which any two distinct points are separated by neighbourhoods.) It turns out that a space is T
3 if and only if it is both regular and T
0. (A T
0 or
Kolmogorov space is a topological space in which any two distinct points are
topologically distinguishable, i.e., for every pair of distinct points, at least one of them has an
open neighborhood not containing the other.) Indeed, if a space is Hausdorff then it is T
0, and each T
0 regular space is Hausdorff: given two distinct points, at least one of them misses the closure of the other one, so (by regularity) there exist disjoint neighborhoods separating one point from (the closure of) the other.
Although the definitions presented here for "regular" and "T
3" are not uncommon, there is significant variation in the literature: some authors switch the definitions of "regular" and "T
3" as they are used here, or use both terms interchangeably. This article uses the term "regular" freely, but will usually say "regular Hausdorff", which is unambiguous, instead of the less precise "T
3". For more on this issue, see
History of the separation axioms.
A is a topological space where every point has an open neighbourhood that is regular. Every regular space is locally regular, but the converse is not true. A classical example of a locally regular space that is not regular is the
bug-eyed line.
Relationships to other separation axioms
A regular space is necessarily also
preregular, i.e., any two
topologically distinguishable points can be separated by neighbourhoods.
Since a Hausdorff space is the same as a preregular
T0 space, a regular space which is also T
0 must be Hausdorff (and thus T
3).
In fact, a regular Hausdorff space satisfies the slightly stronger condition
T2½.
(However, such a space need not be
completely Hausdorff.)
Thus, the definition of T
3 may cite T
0,
T1, or T
2½ instead of T
2 (Hausdorffness); all are equivalent in the context of regular spaces.
Speaking more theoretically, the conditions of regularity and T
3-ness are related by
Kolmogorov quotients.
A space is regular if and only if its Kolmogorov quotient is T
3; and, as mentioned, a space is T
3 if and only if it's both regular and T
0.
Thus a regular space encountered in practice can usually be assumed to be T
3, by replacing the space with its Kolmogorov quotient.
There are many results for topological spaces that hold for both regular and Hausdorff spaces.
Most of the time, these results hold for all preregular spaces; they were listed for regular and Hausdorff spaces separately because the idea of preregular spaces came later.
On the other hand, those results that are truly about regularity generally don't also apply to nonregular Hausdorff spaces.
There are many situations where another condition of topological spaces (such as
normality,
pseudonormality,
paracompactness, or
local compactness) will imply regularity if some weaker separation axiom, such as preregularity, is satisfied.
Such conditions often come in two versions: a regular version and a Hausdorff version.
Although Hausdorff spaces aren't generally regular, a Hausdorff space that is also (say) locally compact will be regular, because any Hausdorff space is preregular.
Thus from a certain point of view, regularity is not really the issue here, and we could impose a weaker condition instead to get the same result.
However, definitions are usually still phrased in terms of regularity, since this condition is more well known than any weaker one.
Most topological spaces studied in
mathematical analysis
Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limits, and related theories, such as differentiation, integration, measure, infinite sequences, series, and analytic functions.
These theories are usually studied ...
are regular; in fact, they are usually
completely regular
In topology and related branches of mathematics, Tychonoff spaces and completely regular spaces are kinds of topological spaces. These conditions are examples of separation axioms. A Tychonoff space refers to any completely regular space that is ...
, which is a stronger condition.
Regular spaces should also be contrasted with
normal space
In topology and related branches of mathematics, a normal space is a topological space ''X'' that satisfies Axiom T4: every two disjoint closed sets of ''X'' have disjoint open neighborhoods. A normal Hausdorff space is also called a T4 space. ...
s.
Examples and nonexamples
A
zero-dimensional space with respect to the
small inductive dimension has a
base consisting of
clopen set
In topology, a clopen set (a portmanteau of closed-open set) in a topological space is a set which is both open and closed. That this is possible may seem counter-intuitive, as the common meanings of and are antonyms, but their mathematical de ...
s.
Every such space is regular.
As described above, any
completely regular space
In topology and related branches of mathematics, Tychonoff spaces and completely regular spaces are kinds of topological spaces. These conditions are examples of separation axioms. A Tychonoff space refers to any completely regular space that is ...
is regular, and any T
0 space that is not
Hausdorff (and hence not preregular) cannot be regular.
Most examples of regular and nonregular spaces studied in mathematics may be found in those two articles.
On the other hand, spaces that are regular but not completely regular, or preregular but not regular, are usually constructed only to provide
counterexample
A counterexample is any exception to a generalization. In logic a counterexample disproves the generalization, and does so rigorously in the fields of mathematics and philosophy. For example, the fact that "John Smith is not a lazy student" is a ...
s to conjectures, showing the boundaries of possible
theorems.
Of course, one can easily find regular spaces that are not T
0, and thus not Hausdorff, such as an
indiscrete space, but these examples provide more insight on the
T0 axiom than on regularity. An example of a regular space that is not completely regular is the
Tychonoff corkscrew.
Most interesting spaces in mathematics that are regular also satisfy some stronger condition.
Thus, regular spaces are usually studied to find properties and theorems, such as the ones below, that are actually applied to completely regular spaces, typically in analysis.
There exist Hausdorff spaces that are not regular. An example is the set R with the topology generated by sets of the form ''U — C'', where ''U'' is an open set in the usual sense, and ''C'' is any countable subset of ''U''.
Elementary properties
Suppose that ''X'' is a regular space.
Then, given any point ''x'' and neighbourhood ''G'' of ''x'', there is a closed neighbourhood ''E'' of ''x'' that is a
subset of ''G''.
In fancier terms, the closed neighbourhoods of ''x'' form a
local base at ''x''.
In fact, this property characterises regular spaces; if the closed neighbourhoods of each point in a topological space form a local base at that point, then the space must be regular.
Taking the
interiors of these closed neighbourhoods, we see that the
regular open sets form a
base for the open sets of the regular space ''X''.
This property is actually weaker than regularity; a topological space whose regular open sets form a base is ''
semiregular''.
References
{{Topology
Separation axioms
Properties of topological spaces
Topology