Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 3 19F iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Let be disjoint closed subsets of . They are compact. For each , the Hausdorff space condition gives disjoint open neighbourhoods . For fixed , finitely many cover ; intersect the corresponding and take the union of those to obtain disjoint open sets and . Finitely many cover . Their union and the intersection of the corresponding are disjoint open neighbourhoods of . The case of an empty set is immediate. Hence is a normal topological space.
Urysohn lemma states that in a normal topological space satisfying , disjoint closed sets admit a continuous function with on and on .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ib Paper 4 13G b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
A closed set is compact because it is closed in the compact space . Its image is compact by the fact that a continuous image of a compact space is compact, and every compact subset of the Hausdorff space is closed. Thus the continuous bijection is a closed map. Its inverse is consequently continuous, so is a homeomorphism. This is the compact-to-Hausdorff continuous bijection theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ib Paper 2 10E ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
The identity mapis a continuous bijection by . Its domain is compact by part (i), and its codomain is a Hausdorff space because every metric space is Hausdorff. The compact-to-Hausdorff continuous bijection theorem therefore makes the identity a homeomorphism. Consequently
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ib Paper 4 2F c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
No. Take the Hausdorff space and declare all nonzero points equivalent, leaving in its own class. The quotient has two points,The nonzero class is open because its inverse image is open. However, the only saturated set containing but not the other class is , which is not open. Thus every neighbourhood of is the whole quotient, so the two quotient points cannot have disjoint neighbourhoods. Therefore need not be Hausdorff.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 130 4 Solution 2026-09-28
A filter on a set is a nonempty family that excludes the empty set, is upward closed, and is closed under finite intersections. An ultrafilter is a proper filter that contains exactly one of and for every subset .
To prove the ultrafilter lemma, order the proper filters containing by inclusion. The union of any chain is again a proper filter, so Zorn lemma gives a maximal extension . If neither nor belonged to , adjoining either one would generate an improper filter. There would then be with and . But , contradicting propriety. Hence is an ultrafilter.
The Stone-Čech compactification of the natural numbers is the set of all ultrafilters on , with basic setsThe identitiesshow that these sets form a basis of clopen sets. Distinct ultrafilters disagree on some ; one lies in and the other in the disjoint set . Thus is a Hausdorff space.
If a family of basic closed sets has the finite intersection property, then the sets have the same property. They generate a proper filter, which extends to an ultrafilter lying in every . The Alexander subbase theorem now implies that is a compact space.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ib Paper 4 2G Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-10-03
The closure is the intersection of all closed subsets containing ; equivalently, every neighbourhood of a point of meets . The subspace is dense when . A space is Hausdorff when distinct points have disjoint neighbourhoods.
For Hausdorff , the diagonal is closed in . Thusis closed. Since it contains the dense set , it equals .
The conclusion fails without Hausdorffness. Let have the Sierpiński space topology and let , which is dense. The identity map and the constant map with value are continuous and agree on , but differ at .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ib Paper 4 10G i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
A compact space is a topological space in which every open cover has a finite subcover. A Hausdorff space is one in which every two distinct points have disjoint open neighbourhoods. A homeomorphism is a bijection that is continuous and whose inverse is continuous.
For an equivalence relation on , let be the set of equivalence classes and letThe quotient topology declares open exactly when is open in . It follows directly from the definition that is continuous.
Suppose that the continuous map is constant on equivalence classes. The only possible factorisation iswhich is well-defined by the hypothesis and satisfies . For every open ,is open in . The definition of the quotient topology therefore makes open, so is continuous. This proves the universal property of the quotient topology.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 130 3 Solution 2026-09-28
Hindman theorem states that every finite coloring of admits an infinite sequence whose finite-sums set is monochromatic.
Identify the Stone-Čech compactification of the natural numbers with the compact Hausdorff space of ultrafilters on , equipped with addition on the Stone-Čech compactification of the natural numbers. This makes a compact Hausdorff left-topological semigroup. For completeness, the Ellis–Numakura lemma gives an idempotent in every such semigroup: by the Hausdorff space property and compactness, the intersection of a descending chain of nonempty compact subsemigroups is nonempty, so Zorn's lemma gives a minimal one . For , the compact subsemigroup equals . Hence the nonempty compact subsemigroupis also , and in particular . Choose the resulting idempotent ultrafilter on the natural numbers .
One color class belongs to . For , writeand defineThe identity implies . It also implies that for every : both and the set of for which belongs to lie in , and their intersection is .
Choose . Having chosen with every nonempty finite sum in , chooseThis is possible because it is a finite intersection of members of the ultrafilter . Every old finite sum remains in , and every new one has the form and also lies in . By mathematical induction, all nonempty finite sums lie in , proving Hindman's theorem.
Now putfor each . If , then their intersection belongs to and is nonempty, whileThus the sets have the finite intersection property. Their closures are closed subsets of the compact interval , so their total intersection contains some . Equivalently, every neighbourhood of meets every ; this is the ultrafilter limit of the sequence.
The point is unique. If distinct points both had this property, choose disjoint neighborhoods . The index set must belong to , because otherwise its complement would belong to and the associated would miss . Similarly . Their intersection is empty, contradicting the definition of an ultrafilter.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 ib Paper 2 10G Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-09-25
The product topology has basis with open in and open in . Since and similarly for , both projections are continuous.
If is Hausdorff, a point off the diagonal has disjoint product neighborhoods, so the diagonal is closed. Conversely, if the diagonal is closed, its complement supplies disjoint neighborhoods of any two distinct points.
Take distinct classes . The points are not related by , so by the defining negation there is a Hausdorff space and a continuous map with . Choose disjoint open neighborhoods and of those two values. Their inverse images and are disjoint open subsets of and are saturated by part (ii).
Hence and , making and open in the quotient topology. They contain the chosen classes and are disjoint: an equivalence class meeting both would contradict saturation and . Thus is Hausdorff. This quotient is the Hausdorff reflection by continuous maps; every continuous map from to a Hausdorff space factors uniquely through it.
A sequence converges to if every open neighbourhood of contains all sufficiently late terms. A Hausdorff space separates any two distinct points by disjoint open neighbourhoods.
If a sequence had distinct limits in a Hausdorff space, choose disjoint open neighbourhoods of and of . Convergence to each limit implies that all sufficiently late terms lie in both and , contradicting . Hence a convergent sequence in a Hausdorff space has a unique limit.
The product topology on has as a basis of a topology the rectangles with open in and open in ; arbitrary unions of such rectangles are its open sets.
For distinct points , at least one coordinate differs. If , disjoint open neighbourhoods in the Hausdorff space give disjoint open neighbourhoods of the two points. If the second coordinates differ instead, use . Thus a product of two Hausdorff spaces is Hausdorff.
For the quotient map , the quotient topology is defined byTake the Hausdorff space and identify two numbers precisely when they are both rational or both irrational. The quotient has two points. The inverse images of its singleton subsets are and , neither of which is open in , since each is dense and has dense complement. Hence the quotient has the indiscrete topology and is not Hausdorff.
A Hausdorff space separates any two distinct points by disjoint open neighborhoods. For a subspace , intersect such neighborhoods in with to obtain disjoint neighborhoods in the subspace topology. Thus subspaces inherit the Hausdorff property.
If lies off the diagonal of a Hausdorff space's square, choose disjoint open neighborhoods of and of . The open rectangle contains the pair and avoids the diagonal. Therefore its complement is open and the diagonal is closed.
The map given by is continuous by the coordinate criterion from E3. The equality locus is and is closed as an inverse image of a closed set.
Let be the quotient map. If the quotient is Hausdorff, apply the same argument to in both coordinates:is closed in .
Conversely suppose is closed and is open. Take two distinct quotient points, with representatives . Since , an open rectangle around it avoids . The images and are open quotient neighborhoods. They are disjoint, because a quotient point in their intersection would have equivalent representatives , , giving . Hence the quotient is Hausdorff. Thus closedness of the relation and openness of the quotient map suffice for a Hausdorff quotient.
In an arbitrary topological space, compact need not imply closed. In a two-point indiscrete space, a singleton is compact but not closed. Closed need not imply compact either: is closed in itself but the cover has no finite subcover. One general theorem that does hold is that a closed subset of a compact space is compact: adjoin to any relative open cover of , take a finite cover of , and discard that additional set.
In a Hausdorff space, every compact subset is closed. For , separate from each by disjoint open sets about and about . Finitely many cover ; the intersection of their corresponding is a neighborhood of disjoint from . Thus the complement of is open. The converse still fails, as the real-line example shows.
In every metric space, compact subsets are bounded. Cover a nonempty by unit balls centered on and take a finite subcover; the triangle inequality bounds all points relative to any one of the finitely many centers. The converse fails even for closed bounded subsets of general metric spaces. An infinite set with discrete metric for distinct points is closed and bounded in itself, but its cover by singleton balls has no finite subcover. Thus compact implies closed and bounded in a metric space, while closed and bounded need not imply compact.
Define by . Its definition is independent of the representative because the classes are precisely the fibres of . It is onto since is onto, and injective because two points with equal -values lie in the same fibre.
The relation and part (iii) imply continuity of . Since is compact and is continuous, is compact. A continuous bijection from a compact space to a Hausdorff space is a homeomorphism. Therefore
For each , use the supplied Hausdorff condition fact to choose disjoint open sets with and . Compactness of gives finitely many whose cover . SetBoth are open; contains and contains . They are disjoint because membership in would put a point in some . If one compact set is empty, use the empty set and directly. Thus disjoint compact subspaces of a Hausdorff space admit disjoint open neighborhoods.
For each , use the supplied Hausdorff condition fact to choose disjoint open sets with and . Compactness of gives finitely many whose cover . SetBoth are open; contains and contains . They are disjoint because membership in would put a point in some . If one compact set is empty, use the empty set and directly. Thus disjoint compact subspaces of a Hausdorff space admit disjoint open neighborhoods.