Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / ib / Paper 3 / 3E (Metric and Topological Spaces)

The product topology has as a basis of a topology all sets $U\times V$, where $U$ is open in $X$ and $V$ is open in $Y$. Open sets are arbitrary unions of these rectangles. The projection maps are $p(x,y)=x$ and $q(x,y)=y$. For any open $U\subset X$ and $V\subset Y$,These are open rectangles, including the empty case. Taking inverse images of open sets therefore proves that both projection maps are continuous functions.

If $X$ is Hausdorff, every pair $x\ne y$ has disjoint open neighborhoods $U$ and $V$. The rectangle $U\times V$ is an open neighborhood of $(x,y)$ disjoint from the diagonal. Hence every point of its complement is interior, so the diagonal is a closed set.

Conversely, if the diagonal is closed, its complement is open in the product topology. For $x\ne y$, the rectangle-basis property gives open $U\ni x$ and $V\ni y$ with $U\times V$ disjoint from the diagonal. If $z\in U\cap V$, then $(z,z)$ lies in that rectangle, a contradiction. Thus $U\cap V=\varnothing$, giving the Hausdorff separation condition. ConsequentlyThe argument includes spaces with zero or one point, for which both conditions hold.