A taste of topology (Q2488192)

This is an introduction to set-theoretic topology with a chapter on Basic Algebraic Topology. The book has five chapters and three appendices on the classical Mittag-Leffler Theorem derived from Bourbaki's, the failure of the Heine-Borel Theorem in infinite-dimensional spaces and the Arzela-Ascoli Theorem. The first chapter is a quick introduction to set theory. Based on a naive notion of set, the author introduces the basic set-theoretic constructions such as unions, intersections and defines functions, discusses cardinalities and uses Zorn's lemma to derive the axioms of choice. Chapter two introduces metric spaces, discusses topological concepts in the metric context, and treats continuity, completeness and compactness for metric spaces. Baire's theorem is obtained as an application of Bourbaki's Mittag-Leffler theorem. General topological spaces are introduced in Chapter three. By axiomatizing the notion of open set topological spaces are defined, and continuity by a definition that avoids any notion of convergence. A parallel between nets and sequences is given and a relatively simple proof of Tychonoff's theorem using nets is presented. Finally an overview of separation properties is given from \(T_0\) to normality. The following chapter is on continuous functions. Urysohn's lemma is presented together with its consequences: Urysohn's metrisation theorem, Tietze's extension theorem, the Stone-Čech compactification of a completely regular space. The chapter ends with a discussion of the real and complex Stone-Weierstrass theorems, both on compact and locally compact spaces. In the chapter on Basic Algebraic topology the notions of homotopy, path homotopy, the fundamental group of a topological space at a given base point are defined. Examples of computation of the fundamental group for convex subsets of formed spaces, for the unit circle (using the concepts of a covering space) are given. Each section of each chapter ends with exercises and each chapter has a section with remarks of a historical nature and suggestions for further reading. I consider this ``Taste of Topology'' an interesting universitext that will make the appetite of the students grow during the years.