Categorical neighborhood operators (Q645199)

In ordinary general topology, neighborhood systems transform into closure operators and \textit{vice versa}, with the feature that performing one transformation after the other leaves us where we started. This interchangeability in set-based topology is lost when one wishes to generalize topology to the setting of abstract categories. In the wake of [\textit{D. Dikranjan} and \textit{E. Giuli}, Topology Appl. 27, 129--143 (1987; Zbl 0634.54008)], a number of papers have pursued category-based topology starting with the closure operator as fundamental, and have studied neighborhood systems and convergence as derived notions. In the present paper, the notion of neighborhood operator is taken as fundamental. In a category equipped with subobject structure, the authors define the neighborhoods of a given subobject of an object to be a suitably well-behaved collection of larger subobjects. Then closure and interior operators, as well as convergence notions, become defined terms. Other topological notions -- such as separation and compactness -- are also studied.