Lectures on:

Topology and Di¤erential Geometry

Houssam Eddine Trad

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Contents

1 Topological Spaces 1
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Topological Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Topologies on Rn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 Continuous Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.5 Subspace Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Abstract
Although this text is tagged as the Abstract in the Front Matter, it will
appear in the typeset document as the Preface. Replace this text with your
preface.

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CONTENTS

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Chapter 1

Topological Spaces

1.1 Introduction
Topology is a branch of mathematics which studies the properties of geometric
spaces under continuous transformation. In other words, topology is the study of
what happen when objects are stretched, twisted and deformed, but not cut.
Hence, from a topological point of view, two objects are equivalent, or homeo-
morphic, if one can obtain the second by deforming the …rst one. It does not matter
if we change shapes or distances between points in topology. What matters is not
to change what point is next to another.

Shapes appearing in each column are topologically equivlent.

1.2 Topological Spaces

De…nition 1. let M be a set, P(M ) be the power set, and P(M ) be a collection
of subsets. If satis…es the following axioms:
i) the empty set and ? and M itself belong to :

M 2 and? 2 ,

ii) the union of an arbitrary number of elements of belongs to :

S
Ui 2 (i = 1; 2; 3; :::if countable) : Ui 2 ,
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 Chapter 1. Topological Spaces

ii) the intersection of any …nite number of members of belongs to :

T
U1 2 ; U2 2 : U1 U2 2 ;

then, the collection is called a topology on M , and the ordered pair (M; ) is
called a topological space. The elements of , denoted by U above, are called open
sets.

Example 1. Consider the set M = f1; 2; 3g.

1 := f?; f1; 2; 3gg : all axioms (i - iii) satis…ed =) 1 forms a topology on

M =) the ordered pair (M; ) is a topological space.
S
2 := f?; f1g; f2g; f1; 2; 3gg : since f1g f2g 2= 2 =) axiom (ii) is not
satis…ed =) 2 is not a topology on M .

3 := f?; f1g; f2g; f3g; f1; 2g; f1; 3g; f3; 2g; f1; 2; 3gg : all axioms (i - iii) satis-
…ed =) 1 forms a topology on M =) the ordered pair (M; ) is a topological
space.

Example 2. Let M be any set. The following are special cases:

triv := f?; M g is a topology on M : it is called the trivial topology (or indis-

crete) on M .

dis := P(M ), where P(M ), called the power set of M , is the collection of all
subsets of M . dis is a topology on M called the discrete topology.

1.3 Topologies on Rn
There are di¤erent topologies that can be de…ned on the set Rn = R R ::: R,
including the trivial and discrete topologies we saw in the examples previously.
However, the most important one for physics is the one called standard topology.

Example 3. Consider the set M = R. The following are di¤erent topologies on it

triv := f?; Rg is the trivial topology on R.

1 := f?; f1g; f2=3g; f1; 2=3g; Rg is a topology on R.

2 := f?; f4g; Rg is a topology on R.

3 := f?; fx 2 Z : 0 6 x 6 10g; Rg is a topology on R.

De…nition 2. Let X(x1 ; x2 ; ::; xn ) and Y (y1 ; y2 ; ::; yn ) be two points of Rn . An open
ball around X of radius r 2 R+ is:
P
n
Br (X) = f(y1 ; y2 ; ::; yn ) : (xi yi )2 < r2 g .
i=1

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 Chapter 1. Topological Spaces

In R, open balls are the open intervals. For instance, B1 (0) is the interval
B1 (0) = fy 2 R : y 2 < 1g =] 1; +1[

In R2 , open balls are the open discs. For instance, B1 (Xp ) is the disc
B1 (Xp ) = f(y1 ; y2 ) : (xp1 y1 )2 + (xp2 y2 )2 < 1g .

Open balls in R2 are the open discs.

De…nition 3. The standard topology on Rn , denoted st , is the collection of all

subsets U of Rn satisfying
for all points p 2 U , 9r > 0 : Br (p) U .
In other words, we can write
st = fall U 2 P(Rn ) : 8p 2 U , 9r > 0 : Br (p) U g.
We can show that the de…nition of st satisfy indeed the axioms of a topological
space (see exercises).

For the set U1 , since points on the dashed line, such as p2 , do not belong to the set,
the de…nition of standard topology is satis…ed, and U1 is elements of st . However,
for the set U2 , points like p3 belongs to the set U2 , but we cannot …nd a real r for
which Br (p3 ) is in U2 . Hence, U2 is not an open set in the standard topology, i.e.,
U2 = st .

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 Chapter 1. Topological Spaces

Example 4. Let M = R1 (the real line). The set of all intervals ]a; b[, for real a
and b, de…nes a standard topology on R1 . However, we cannot write down explicitly
the elements of st because it is an uncountable set.

1.4 Continuous Maps

De…nition 4. Let M and N be two sets. A map (or mapping) f is a rule by which
we assign an element y from N for each element x from M , and we write:

f (x) : M ! N
x 7 ! f (x)

The set M is called the domain,

The set N is called the codomain (or range or target),
Let U M , the image of U under the map f is

Imf (U ) = fn 2 N; 9m 2 M : f (m) = ng ,

Let V M , the preimage of V under the map f is

Preimf (V ) = fm 2 M : f (m) 2 V g .

De…nition 5. Let f be a map f : M ! N .

f is called injective (or one to one) if it maps distinct elements of M to distinct

elements of N : 8a; b 2 M; f (a) = f (b) =) a = b:

f is called surjective (or onto) if every element of N can be mapped from some
element of M : 8y 2 N; 9x 2 M : f (x) = y :

f is called bijective (or invertible) if it is both injective and surjective: 8y 2 N;

9!x 2 M : f (x) = y

De…nition 6. Let (M; M ) and (M; N ) be two topological spaces. Then, the map
f : M ! N is called continuous (with respect to topologies M and N ) if the
preimage of all open sets V in N are open sets in M , or

8V 2 N; Preimf (V ) 2 M .

Example 5. Let M = f1; 2g be a set endowed with the topology M = f?; f1g; f2g; f2; 1gg,
while N = f1; 2g be another set endowed with the topology N = f?; f2; 1gg.

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 Chapter 1. Topological Spaces

Consider the map f : M ! N . Since Preimf (?) = ? 2 M and Preimf (f2; 1g) =
M 2 M , f is continuous.
1
Consider the map g : N ! M . (notice that g is just f ).

Since Preimg (f1g) = f2g 2

= N, g is not continuous.

1.5 Subspace Topology

Let (M; M ) be a topological space and S be a subset (not necessarily open set) of
M , i.e., S M . In fact, we can give S any topology we want, but it is of a special
importance if we de…ne a topology on S using the topology M . This is what we
call a subspace topology.

De…nition 7. Given a topological space (M; M) and a subset S of M , the subspace

topology on S, denoted by jM , is de…ned as

jM = fS \ U j U 2 Mg .

We can prove that jM satis…es the three axioms of a topological space.

Example 6. Let M = fa; b; c; dg be a set endowed with the topology M =

f?; fag; fcg; fa; cg; fa; b; c; dgg. Consider the subset S = fa; b; g M . Let us
construct the subspace topology on jM

jM = fS \ U j U 2 M g
= fS \ ?; S \ fag; S \ fcg; S \ fa; cg; S \ fa; b; c; dgg
= f?; fag; fa; bgg .

We can easily check that jM satis…es the three axioms of a topology, hence
(S; jM ) is a topological space.