Net (mathematics)
In mathematics, more specifically in general topology and related branches, a net or Moore–Smith sequence is a generalization of the notion of a sequence.
Description
A sequence is a function with domain the natural numbers, and in the context of topology, the codomain of this function is usually any topological space.
However, in the context of topology, sequences do not fully encode all information about a function between topological spaces. In particular, the following two conditions are not equivalent in general for a map f between topological spaces X and Y:
- The map f is continuous (in the topological sense)
- Given any point x in X, and any sequence in X converging to x, the composition of f with this sequence converges to f(x) (continuous in the sequential sense)
It is true, however, that condition 1 implies condition 2. The difficulty encountered when attempting to prove that condition 2 implies condition 1 lies in the fact that topological spaces are, in general, not first-countable. If the first-countability axiom were imposed on the topological spaces in question, the two above conditions would be equivalent. In particular, the two conditions are equivalent for metric spaces.
The purpose of the concept of a net, first introduced by E. H. Moore and H. L. Smith in 1922, is to generalize the notion of a sequence so as to confirm the equivalence of the conditions (with "sequence" being replaced by "net" in condition 2).
In particular, rather than being defined on a countable linearly ordered set, a net is defined on an arbitrary directed set. In particular, this allows theorems similar to that asserting the equivalence of condition 1 and condition 2, to hold in the context of topological spaces that do not necessarily have a countable or linearly ordered neighborhood basis around a point.
Therefore, while sequences do not encode sufficient information about functions between topological spaces, nets do because collections of open sets in topological spaces are much like directed sets in behavior.
The term "net" was coined by John L. Kelley.
Nets are one of the many tools used in topology to generalize certain concepts that may only be general enough in the context of metric spaces.
A related notion, that of the [Filter (mathematics)|filter]], was developed in 1937 by Henri Cartan.
See also
- Filter (mathematics)
- First-countable space
- Function (mathematics)
- General topology
- Sequence
- Topological space
External links
- Net (mathematics) @ Wikipedia.org
