Past exam of the options II course of the University of Oxford / 2013 / E4 / c

A topological space is connected if it cannot be written as the union of two disjoint nonempty open subsets. Equivalently, its only subsets that are both open and closed are the empty set and the whole space. Under this definition the empty space is connected.

If $A$ is disconnected, a separation writes it as $A=A_1\cup A_2$ with $A_1,A_2$ disjoint, nonempty and open in its subspace topology. By definition there are ambient open sets $U,V$ with $A_1=U\cap A$ and $A_2=V\cap A$. These give exactly the four conditions stated.

Conversely, those conditions make $U\cap A,V\cap A$ two nonempty disjoint relatively open sets whose union is $A$. They are therefore a separation. This proves the equivalence. The ambient sets may overlap outside $A$, which is why the condition here is $U\cap V\cap A=\varnothing$.

If $A$ is disconnected, take a separation $A=A_1\cup A_2$. Each piece is also relatively closed, being the complement of the other. They are compact as closed subsets of the compact space $A$.

Part (b), using the ambient Hausdorff property, gives disjoint ambient open neighborhoods of $A_1$ and $A_2$. They meet $A$, cover it, and are disjoint everywhere, as required. Conversely, such ambient open sets give a separation on intersecting with $A$, by part (ii). Hence compactness and the Hausdorff property permit fully disjoint ambient neighborhoods.