Cocompactness in algebra and topology

Abstract

AbstractThis paper discusses two notions, developed independently and both termed “cocompactness”. The first arises in the area of topology, where J. de Groot and others have studied spaces which are, in a certain sense, complementary to a given space. If the given space is compact then the complementary spaces are said to be cocompact. The second concept arises in the area of logic and general algebra. Loosely speaking a logic is compact if every inconsistent set of formulas has a finite inconsistent subset. This notion of compactness may be generalized to any closure algebra and the use of the term “cocompactness” to describe the generalization was suggested to the author by Dr. R. A. Bull.It is shown here that topological and algebraic cocompactness are related in the following ways. Firstly, if a closure algebra is algebraically cocompact then its dual space is topologjcally cocompact, and conditions may be given for the implication to be reversible.3 Furthermore any cocompact topological space may be represented as the continuous 1-1 image of the dual space of a cocompact closure algebra. A final result relates another class of closure algebras with those topological spaces which are compact.