Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-ii-for-mathematics-and-philosophy-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2013/e4/c/ii/solution

If is disconnected, a separation writes it as with disjoint, nonempty and open in its subspace topology. By definition there are ambient open sets with and . These give exactly the four conditions stated.
Conversely, those conditions make two nonempty disjoint relatively open sets whose union is . They are therefore a separation. This proves the equivalence. The ambient sets may overlap outside , which is why the condition here is .

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