We present the Bow-Tie space, which exhibits many interesting properties. The Bow-Tie space is hereditarily Lindelof, and hereditarily separable. It is also the continuous image of a separable metric space. These properties follow from the fact that the Bow-Tie space has a countable network. Furthermore, the Bow-Tie space is neither metrizable nor a Moore space. Thus, the example demonstrates that the continuous image of a separable metric space does not have to be a separable metric space.
Louis F. McAuley introduced the Bow-Tie space as an example of a regular semimetric space that is hereditarily separable, collectionwise normal, completely normal and paracompact, but is not second countable and is not developable, hence not a Moore space [3]. The Bow-Tie space is also discussed in Counterexamples in Topology [5] (see p. 175 Dover Edition). In these two references, the Bow-Tie space is defined as a semimetric space. The version given here is found in [4]. The Bow-Tie space is given in [4] as an example of a cosmic space (i.e., a space with a countable network) that is not an -space.
All spaces under consideration are Hausdorff. Let be a space. A collection of subsets of is said to be a network for if for each and for each open set containing , there exists such that . A network behaves like a base but the elements of the network do not have to be open sets. Of interest are the spaces with a countable network. Compact spaces with a countable network is metrizable. Any space with a countable network is both hereditarily separable and hereditarily Lindelof. The space has a countable network if and only if is the continuous image of a separable metric space. Having a countable network is a strong property. See here for a discussion of these facts about spaces with countable network.
The Bow-Tie Space
Let be the upper half plane, which is the set of all pairs of real numbers with . Let be the x-axis, which is the set of all pairs of real numbers with . The bow-tie space is the set with the topology defined as follows.
- Open neighborhoods of points in the upper half plane are the Euclidean open subsets of .
- An open neighborhood of a point in the x-axis is of the form with . Each set consists of the point and all points having Euclidean distance less than from and lying underneath either one of the two straight lines emanating from with slopes and , respectively.
In the following diagram, is represented by the area in the upper half plane shaded in green plus the points in the x-axis having a distance less than from and below the two lines with slopes and .
It is straightforward to verify that the open neighborhoods produce a Hausdorff and regular space. The relative Bow-Tie topologies on and coincide with the Euclidean topologies on and , respectively. Let and be countable bases for and in their respective relative Euclidean topologies. Then is a network for the Bow-Tie space . Thus, the Bow-Tie space has a countable network. Any space with a countable network is Lindelof and separable. The property of having a countable netowrk is hereditary. Thus, the Bow-Tie space is hereditarily Lindelof and hereditarily separable. See here for a discussion of these facts about spaces with countable network.
Any space with a countable network is the continuous image of a separable metric space. In the case of the Bow-Tie space, we can see this directly. Let be the upper half plane with the Euclidean topology. Let be the x-axis with the Euclidean topology. Let , the free sum or free union. This means that is open if and only if both and are open. It follows that the identity map from onto the Bow-Tie space is continuous.
The Bow-Tie space is separable but not metrizable. We show that does not have a countable base. Suppose it does. Let be a countable base for the Bow-Tie space. We can assume that the elements of that contain points of the x-axis are of the form defined above. Since is countable, there can only be countably many in , say, , , , . Pick such that for all . Consider . Since is a base, there must exist some such that . This means that both the left side and the right side of the bow-tie in are within . On the other hand, one side of the bow-tie of (either the left side or the right side) is above the point . The points on that side of the bow-tie of right above point cannot be part of , a contradiction. Thus, the Bow-Tie space cannot have a countable base and hence not metrizable. The Bow-Tie space cannot be a Moore space since any Lindelof Moore space must have a countable base.
Not only the Bow-Tie space cannot have a countable base, it also cannot have a point-countable base. For any space, a base is a point-countable base if every point in the space belongs to only countably many elements of the base. In [3] and [5], the Bow-Tie space is defined using a semimetric. Heath [2] showed that every semimetric space with a point-countable base is developable, hence a Moore space if the space is regular. The Bow-Tie space cannot have a point-countable base. If it does, it would be a Moore space.
We mention two more facts about the Bow-Tie space. One is that the Bow-Tie space is a Lindelof -space. It is well known that any space with a countable network is a Lindelof -space [6]. Secondly, , the function space with the pointwise convergence topology on the Bow-Tie space is a hereditarily D-space. Gruenhage [1] showed that if is a Lindelof -space, then is a hereditarily D-space.
Reference
- Gruenhage, G., A note on D-spaces, Topology and Appl. 152, 2229-2240, 2006.
- Heath, R. W., On spaces with point-countable bases, Bull. Acad. Polon. Sci. 13, 393-395, 1965.
- McAuley, L. F., A relation between perfect separability, completeness, and normality in semimetric spaces, Pacific J. Math. 6, 315-326, 1956.
- Michael, E., -spaces, J. Math. Mech., 15, 983-1002, 1966.
- Steen, L. A., Seebach, J. A., Counterexamples in Topology, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1995.
- Tkachuk, V. V., Lindelof -spaces: an omnipresent class, RACSAM, 104 (2), 221-244, 2010.
Dan Ma Bow-Tie space
Daniel Ma Bow-Tie space
Dan Ma hereditarily Lindelof space
Daniel Ma hereditarily Lindelof space
Dan Ma hereditarily separable space
Daniel Ma hereditarily separable space
Dan Ma countable network
Daniel Ma countable network
Dan Ma topology
Daniel Ma topology
2023 – Dan Ma