Homeomorphism

In the mathematical

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 field of topology

Topology

Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...

, a homeomorphism or topological isomorphism or bicontinuous function is a continuous function

Continuous function

In mathematics, a continuous function is a function for which, intuitively, "small" changes in the input result in "small" changes in the output. Otherwise, a function is said to be "discontinuous". A continuous function with a continuous inverse function is called "bicontinuous".Continuity of...

 between topological spaces that has a continuous inverse function

Inverse function

In mathematics, an inverse function is a function that undoes another function: If an input x into the function ƒ produces an output y, then putting y into the inverse function g produces the output x, and vice versa. i.e., ƒ=y, and g=x...

. Homeomorphisms are the isomorphism

Isomorphism

In abstract algebra, an isomorphism is a mapping between objects that shows a relationship between two properties or operations.  If there exists an isomorphism between two structures, the two structures are said to be isomorphic.  In a certain sense, isomorphic structures are...

s in the category of topological spaces

Category of topological spaces

In mathematics, the category of topological spaces, often denoted Top, is the category whose objects are topological spaces and whose morphisms are continuous maps. This is a category because the composition of two continuous maps is again continuous...

—that is, they are the mappings

Map (mathematics)

In most of mathematics and in some related technical fields, the term mapping, usually shortened to map, is either a synonym for function, or denotes a particular kind of function which is important in that branch, or denotes something conceptually similar to a function.In graph theory, a map is a...

 that preserve all the topological properties

Topological property

In topology and related areas of mathematics a topological property or topological invariant is a property of a topological space which is invariant under homeomorphisms. That is, a property of spaces is a topological property if whenever a space X possesses that property every space homeomorphic...

 of a given space. Two spaces with a homeomorphism between them are called homeomorphic, and from a topological viewpoint they are the same.

Roughly speaking, a topological space is a geometric

Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

 object, and the homeomorphism is a continuous stretching and bending of the object into a new shape. Thus, a square

Square (geometry)

In geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral. This means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles...

 and a circle

Circle

A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane that are a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any of the points and the centre is called the radius....

 are homeomorphic to each other, but a sphere

Sphere

A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical object in three-dimensional space, such as the shape of a round ball. Like a circle in two dimensions, a perfect sphere is completely symmetrical around its center, with all points on the surface lying the same distance r from the center point...

 and a donut

Torus

In geometry, a torus is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle...

 are not. An often-repeated mathematical joke

Mathematical joke

A mathematical joke is a form of humor which relies on aspects of mathematics or a stereotype of mathematicians to derive humor. The humor may come from a pun, or from a double meaning of a mathematical term. It may also come from a lay person's misunderstanding of a mathematical concept...

 is that topologists can't tell their coffee cup from their donut, since a sufficiently pliable donut could be reshaped to the form of a coffee cup by creating a dimple and progressively enlarging it, while shrinking the hole into a handle.

Topology is the study of those properties of objects that do not change when homeomorphisms are applied. As Henri Poincaré

Henri Poincaré

Jules Henri Poincaré was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and a philosopher of science...

 famously said, mathematics is not the study of objects, but instead, the relations (isomorphisms for instance) between them.

Definition

A function

Function (mathematics)

In mathematics, a function associates one quantity, the argument of the function, also known as the input, with another quantity, the value of the function, also known as the output. A function assigns exactly one output to each input. The argument and the value may be real numbers, but they can...

 f: X → Y between two topological space

Topological space

Topological spaces are mathematical structures that allow the formal definition of concepts such as convergence, connectedness, and continuity. They appear in virtually every branch of modern mathematics and are a central unifying notion...

s (X, T_X) and (Y, T_Y) is called a homeomorphism if it has the following properties:

• f is a bijection
  Bijection
  A bijection is a function giving an exact pairing of the elements of two sets. A bijection from the set X to the set Y has an inverse function from Y to X. If X and Y are finite sets, then the existence of a bijection means they have the same number of elements...
  
   (one-to-one
  Injective function
  In mathematics, an injective function is a function that preserves distinctness: it never maps distinct elements of its domain to the same element of its codomain. In other words, every element of the function's codomain is mapped to by at most one element of its domain...
  
   and onto),
• f is continuous,
• the inverse function
  Inverse function
  In mathematics, an inverse function is a function that undoes another function: If an input x into the function ƒ produces an output y, then putting y into the inverse function g produces the output x, and vice versa. i.e., ƒ=y, and g=x...
  
   f ⁻¹ is continuous (f is an open mapping).

A function with these three properties is sometimes called bicontinuous. If such a function exists, we say X and Y are homeomorphic. A self-homeomorphism is a homeomorphism of a topological space and itself. The homeomorphisms form an equivalence relation

Equivalence relation

In mathematics, an equivalence relation is a relation that, loosely speaking, partitions a set so that every element of the set is a member of one and only one cell of the partition. Two elements of the set are considered equivalent if and only if they are elements of the same cell...

 on the class

Class (set theory)

In set theory and its applications throughout mathematics, a class is a collection of sets which can be unambiguously defined by a property that all its members share. The precise definition of "class" depends on foundational context...

 of all topological spaces. The resulting equivalence classes are called homeomorphism classes.

Examples

• The unit 2-disc
  Ball (mathematics)
  In mathematics, a ball is the space inside a sphere. It may be a closed ball or an open ball ....
  
   D² and the unit square
  Unit square
  In mathematics, a unit square is a square whose sides have length 1. Often, "the" unit square refers specifically to the square in the Cartesian plane with corners at , , , and .-In the real plane:...
  
   in R² are homeomorphic.
• The open interval
  Interval (mathematics)
  In mathematics, a interval is a set of real numbers with the property that any number that lies between two numbers in the set is also included in the set. For example, the set of all numbers satisfying is an interval which contains and , as well as all numbers between them...
  
   (a, b) is homeomorphic to the real number
  Real number
  In mathematics, a real number is a value that represents a quantity along a continuum, such as -5 , 4/3 , 8.6 , √2 and π...
  
  s R for any a < b.
• The product space
  Product topology
  In topology and related areas of mathematics, a product space is the cartesian product of a family of topological spaces equipped with a natural topology called the product topology...
  
    S¹
  Sphere
  A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical object in three-dimensional space, such as the shape of a round ball. Like a circle in two dimensions, a perfect sphere is completely symmetrical around its center, with all points on the surface lying the same distance r from the center point...
  
   × S¹ and the two-dimension
  Dimension
  In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
  
  al torus
  Torus
  In geometry, a torus is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle...
  
   are homeomorphic.
• Every uniform isomorphism
  Uniform isomorphism
  In the mathematical field of topology a uniform isomorphism or uniform homeomorphism is a special isomorphism between uniform spaces which respects uniform properties.-Definition:...
  
   and isometric isomorphism is a homeomorphism.
• Any 2-sphere with a single point removed is homeomorphic to the set of all points in R² (a 2-dimensional plane
  Plane (mathematics)
  In mathematics, a plane is a flat, two-dimensional surface. A plane is the two dimensional analogue of a point , a line and a space...
  
  ). (Here we use 2-sphere in the sense of a physical beach ball, not a circle or 4-ball.)
• Let A be a commutative ring with unity and let S be a multiplicative subset of A. Then Spec(A_S) is homeomorphic to
• R^m and Rⁿ are not homeomorphic for
• The Euclidean real line
  Real line
  In mathematics, the real line, or real number line is the line whose points are the real numbers. That is, the real line is the set of all real numbers, viewed as a geometric space, namely the Euclidean space of dimension one...
  
   is not homeomorphic to the unit circle as a subspace of R² as the unit circle is compact as a subspace of Euclidean R² but the real line is not compact.

Properties

• Two homeomorphic spaces share the same topological properties
  Topological property
  In topology and related areas of mathematics a topological property or topological invariant is a property of a topological space which is invariant under homeomorphisms. That is, a property of spaces is a topological property if whenever a space X possesses that property every space homeomorphic...
  
  . For example, if one of them is compact
  Compact space
  In mathematics, specifically general topology and metric topology, a compact space is an abstract mathematical space whose topology has the compactness property, which has many important implications not valid in general spaces...
  
  , then the other is as well; if one of them is connected
  Connectedness
  In mathematics, connectedness is used to refer to various properties meaning, in some sense, "all one piece". When a mathematical object has such a property, we say it is connected; otherwise it is disconnected...
  
  , then the other is as well; if one of them is Hausdorff
  Hausdorff space
  In topology and related branches of mathematics, a Hausdorff space, separated space or T2 space is a topological space in which distinct points have disjoint neighbourhoods. Of the many separation axioms that can be imposed on a topological space, the "Hausdorff condition" is the most frequently...
  
  , then the other is as well; their homotopy
  Homotopy
  In topology, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic if one can be "continuously deformed" into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy between the two functions...
  
   & homology groups will coincide. Note however that this does not extend to properties defined via a metric
  Metric space
  In mathematics, a metric space is a set where a notion of distance between elements of the set is defined.The metric space which most closely corresponds to our intuitive understanding of space is the 3-dimensional Euclidean space...
  
  ; there are metric spaces that are homeomorphic even though one of them is complete and the other is not.
• A homeomorphism is simultaneously an open mapping and a closed mapping; that is, it maps open set
  Open set
  The concept of an open set is fundamental to many areas of mathematics, especially point-set topology and metric topology. Intuitively speaking, a set U is open if any point x in U can be "moved" a small amount in any direction and still be in the set U...
  
  s to open sets and closed set
  Closed set
  In geometry, topology, and related branches of mathematics, a closed set is a set whose complement is an open set. In a topological space, a closed set can be defined as a set which contains all its limit points...
  
  s to closed sets.
• Every self-homeomorphism in can be extended to a self-homeomorphism of the whole disk (Alexander's trick).

Informal discussion

The intuitive criterion of stretching, bending, cutting and gluing back together takes a certain amount of practice to apply correctly—it may not be obvious from the description above that deforming a line segment

Line segment

In geometry, a line segment is a part of a line that is bounded by two end points, and contains every point on the line between its end points. Examples of line segments include the sides of a triangle or square. More generally, when the end points are both vertices of a polygon, the line segment...

 to a point is impermissible, for instance. It is thus important to realize that it is the formal definition given above that counts.

This characterization of a homeomorphism often leads to confusion with the concept of homotopy

Homotopy

In topology, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic if one can be "continuously deformed" into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy between the two functions...

, which is actually defined as a continuous deformation, but from one function to another, rather than one space to another. In the case of a homeomorphism, envisioning a continuous deformation is a mental tool for keeping track of which points on space X correspond to which points on Y—one just follows them as X deforms. In the case of homotopy, the continuous deformation from one map to the other is of the essence, and it is also less restrictive, since none of the maps involved need to be one-to-one or onto. Homotopy does lead to a relation on spaces: homotopy equivalence.

There is a name for the kind of deformation involved in visualizing a homeomorphism. It is (except when cutting and regluing are required) an isotopy

Homotopy

In topology, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic if one can be "continuously deformed" into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy between the two functions...

 between the identity map

Identity function

In mathematics, an identity function, also called identity map or identity transformation, is a function that always returns the same value that was used as its argument...

 on X and the homeomorphism from X to Y.

See also

• Local homeomorphism
  Local homeomorphism
  In mathematics, more specifically topology, a local homeomorphism is intuitively a function, f, between topological spaces that preserves local structure. Equivalently, one can cover the domain of this function by open sets, such that f restricted to each such open set is a homeomorphism onto its...
  
  
• Diffeomorphism
  Diffeomorphism
  In mathematics, a diffeomorphism is an isomorphism in the category of smooth manifolds. It is an invertible function that maps one differentiable manifold to another, such that both the function and its inverse are smooth.- Definition :...
  
  
• Uniform isomorphism
  Uniform isomorphism
  In the mathematical field of topology a uniform isomorphism or uniform homeomorphism is a special isomorphism between uniform spaces which respects uniform properties.-Definition:...
  
   is an isomorphism between uniform spaces
• Isometric isomorphism is an isomorphism between metric spaces
• Dehn twist
  Dehn twist
  In geometric topology, a branch of mathematics, a Dehn twist is a certain type of self-homeomorphism of a surface .-Definition:...
  
  
• Homeomorphism (graph theory)
  Homeomorphism (graph theory)
  In graph theory, two graphs G and G' are homeomorphic if there is an isomorphism from some subdivision of G to some subdivision of G'...
  
   (closely related to graph subdivision)
• Isotopy
• Mapping class group
  Mapping class group
  In mathematics, in the sub-field of geometric topology, the mapping class groupis an important algebraic invariant of a topological space. Briefly, the mapping class group is a discrete group of 'symmetries' of the space.-Motivation:...
  
  
• Poincaré conjecture
  Poincaré conjecture
  In mathematics, the Poincaré conjecture is a theorem about the characterization of the three-dimensional sphere , which is the hypersphere that bounds the unit ball in four-dimensional space...