Space S000067

Irrational slope topology

Also known as: Bing's connected countable space

Let X={(x,y):x,yQ,y0}X = \{(x,y) : x,y \in \mathbb{Q}, y \geq 0\}. For a fixed irrational θ>0\theta>0, the irrational slope topology on XX is obtained by taking as a local base of open neighborhoods of each point (x,y)X(x,y)\in X the collection of sets Nϵ(x,y)N_\epsilon(x,y) with ϵ>0\epsilon>0, defined by Nϵ(x,y)={(x,y)}B(xy/θ,ϵ)B(x+y/θ,ϵ)N_\epsilon(x,y) = \{(x,y)\} \cup B(x - y/\theta, \epsilon) \cup B(x + y/\theta, \epsilon) where B(a,ϵ):=((aϵ,a+ϵ)Q)×{0}B(a, \epsilon):=((a-\epsilon,a+\epsilon)\cap\mathbb Q)\times\{0\}. That is, Nϵ(x,y)N_\epsilon(x,y) consists of the point (x,y)(x,y) together with the rational numbers in an ϵ\epsilon-neighborhood around the two points where the lines passing through (x,y)(x,y) with slopes θ\theta and θ-\theta cross the real xx-axis.

Defined as counterexample #75 ("Irrational Slope Topology") in DOI 10.1007/978-1-4612-6290-9. Originally introduced in zbMATH 0051.13902 with θ=3\theta=\sqrt 3.