Duality beyond sober spaces: Topological spaces and observation frames

Abstract

We introduce observation frames as an extension of ordinary frames. The aim is to give an abstract representation of a mapping from observable predicates to all predicates of a specific system. A full subcategory of the category of observation frames is shown to be dual to the category of T 0 topological spaces. The notions we use generalize those in the adjunction between frames and topological spaces in the sense that we generalize finite meets to infinite ones. We also give a predicate logic of observation frames with both infinite conjunctions and disjunctions, just like there is a geometric logic for (ordinary) frames with infinite disjunctions but only finite conjunctions. This theory is then applied to two situations: firstly to upper power spaces, and secondly we restrict the adjunction between the categories of topological spaces and of observation frames in order to obtain dualities for various subcategories of T 0 spaces. These involve nonsober spaces.