What are some interesting counterexamples given by finite topological spaces?

534 Views Asked by At

According to Wikipedia, 'finite topological spaces are often used to provide examples of interesting phenomena or counterexamples to plausible sounding conjectures.' I have been studying the book 'Counterexamples in Topology' (by L. Steen & J. Seebach), and I have not found any explicit nontrivial 'counterexamples' per se given by finite topological spaces in this book.

The only nontrivial example I have thus far found of a counterexample given by a finite topological space is given in the article 'A counterexample in finite fixed point theory' by John R. Isbell (under the pseudonym 'H. C. Enos'). Isbell exhibited a finite topological space which is a counterexample to the following question:

Question (Lee Mohler, 1970): Given a topological space $X$ which is the union of closed subspaces $Y$ and $Z$ such that $Y$, $Z$, and $Y \cap Z$ have the fixed point property, does it follow that $X$ has the fixed point property?

It thus seems natural to ask: what are some other examples of interesting nontrivial counterexamples given by finite topological spaces?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

The Sierpiński space is the smallest example of a topological space which is neither trivial nor discrete. It is also the smallest Kolmogorov ($T_0$) space that is not Hausdorff.