Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-topology-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/2/b/ii/solution

The product topology on the Cartesian product has a basis of a topology consisting of all rectangles , where is open in and is open in . Equivalently, it is the smallest topology making the two coordinate projections continuous.
Take distinct points and . If , use the Hausdorff condition in to find disjoint open neighbourhoods . Then and are disjoint open neighbourhoods of the two points. If , then ; disjoint open neighbourhoods in give and . Thus is Hausdorff, as established by the forward implication of the Hausdorff property of a nonempty product. An empty Cartesian product is automatically Hausdorff.

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