Urysohn's lemma

In topology, Urysohn's lemma is a lemma that states that a topological space is normal if and only if any two disjoint closed subsets can be separated by a continuous function. In topology, Urysohn's lemma is a lemma that states that a topological space is normal if and only if any two disjoint closed subsets can be separated by a continuous function. Urysohn's lemma is commonly used to construct continuous functions with various properties on normal spaces. It is widely applicable since all metric spaces and all compact Hausdorff spaces are normal. The lemma is generalized by (and usually used in the proof of) the Tietze extension theorem. The lemma is named after the mathematician Pavel Samuilovich Urysohn. Two subsets A and B of a topological space X are said to be separated by neighbourhoods if there are neighbourhoods U of A and V of B that are disjoint. In particular A and B are necessarily disjoint. Two plain subsets A and B are said to be separated by a function if there exists a continuous function f from X into the unit interval such that f(a) = 0 for all a in A and f(b) = 1 for all b in B. Any such function is called a Urysohn function for A and B. In particular A and B are necessarily disjoint. It follows that if two subsets A and B are separated by a function then so are their closures.Also it follows that if two subsets A and B are separated by a function then A and B are separated by neighbourhoods. A normal space is a topological space in which any two disjoint closed sets can be separated by neighbourhoods. Urysohn's lemma states that a topological space is normal if and only if any two disjoint closed sets can be separated by a continuous function. The sets A and B need not be precisely separated by f, i.e., we do not, and in general cannot, require that f(x) ≠ 0 and ≠ 1 for x outside of A and B. The spaces in which this property holds are the perfectly normal spaces. Urysohn's lemma has led to the formulation of other topological properties such as the 'Tychonoff property' and 'completely Hausdorff spaces'. For example, a corollary of the lemma is that normal T1 spaces are Tychonoff.