A is totally disconnected if every has at most one point.

Equivalent formulation

Every connected component is a singleton. The empty space is also totally disconnected.

Examples

Discrete spaces, the rationals with their usual subspace topology, and the Cantor set are totally disconnected. Total disconnectedness does not imply discreteness.

Locally compact groups

Total disconnectedness is one of the defining conditions of a . The existence of compact open subgroups in that setting is an additional theorem, not part of the definition of total disconnectedness.