Trivial topology

In topology, a topological space with the trivial topology is one where the only open sets are the empty set and the entire space. Such spaces are commonly called indiscrete, anti-discrete, concrete or codiscrete. Intuitively, this has the consequence that all points of the space are "lumped together" and cannot be distinguished by topological means. Every indiscrete space is a pseudometric space in which the distance between any two points is zero.

Details

The trivial topology is the topology with the least possible number of open sets, namely the empty set and the entire space, since the definition of a topology requires these two sets to be open. Despite its simplicity, a space X with more than one element and the trivial topology lacks a key desirable property: it is not a T0 space.

Other properties of an indiscrete space X—many of which are quite unusual—include:

In some sense the opposite of the trivial topology is the discrete topology, in which every subset is open.

The trivial topology belongs to a uniform space in which the whole cartesian product X × X is the only entourage.

Let Top be the category of topological spaces with continuous maps and Set be the category of sets with functions. If G : TopSet is the functor that assigns to each topological space its underlying set (the so-called forgetful functor), and H : SetTop is the functor that puts the trivial topology on a given set, then H (the so-called cofree functor) is right adjoint to G. (The so-called free functor F : SetTop that puts the discrete topology on a given set is left adjoint to G.)[1][2]

See also

Notes

References

  • Steen, Lynn Arthur; Seebach, J. Arthur Jr. (1995) [1978], Counterexamples in Topology (Dover reprint of 1978 ed.), Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-486-68735-3, MR 0507446