Closed set
A subset whose complement is open in the ambient space.
A closed set in a topological space is a subset such that its complement (the set difference) is a open set.
Closed sets are the natural targets of the closure operation: the closure of is the smallest closed set containing . Closed sets also provide an equivalent formulation of continuity via preimages of closed sets.
Examples
- In with the usual topology, is closed.
- In the discrete topology on , every subset of is closed.
- In the indiscrete topology on , the only closed sets are and .