Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/ib/paper-2/13g/a/ii/solution

Take and . Their representations as unions provide with and . The intersection condition supplies with .
It follows that is the union of all members of contained in it, and hence belongs to . Induction gives closure under every finite intersection. Together with part (i), this proves that is a topology. Each belongs to as a union with one member, and every open set is a union of such members by construction. Thus is a basis for . Here the printed subset sign is interpreted as inclusion, allowing equality, as in the usual basis criterion.

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