Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-topology-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/2/c/iv/solution
Past exam of the topology course of the University of Oxford 2015 2 c iv Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
Collapsing the integers gives a Hausdorff space. For two distinct noninteger points, choose disjoint small open intervals around them that avoid . Each interval is saturated under the saturation of a subset operation, so its image is an open neighbourhood of its class. For a noninteger and the collapsed class, choose . The disjoint open setsare saturated; contains and contains all integers. Their images separate the two quotient points. These exhaust all pairs of distinct classes.
Collapsing the rationals does not give a Hausdorff space. The preimage of the singleton collapsed point is , which is not closed in . Therefore that quotient singleton is not closed, whereas every singleton of a Hausdorff space is closed.Equivalently, every nonempty saturated open subset of meets the dense set and therefore contains it all. Every nonempty quotient open set contains the collapsed point, making separation from any other quotient point impossible.
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