Homeomorphism

A function ${\displaystyle f:X\to Y}$ between two topological spaces is a homeomorphism if it has the following properties:

• ${\displaystyle f}$ is a
  onto
  ),
• ${\displaystyle f}$ is
  continuous
  ,
• the inverse function ${\displaystyle f^{-1}}$ is continuous (${\displaystyle f}$ is an
  open mapping
  ).

A homeomorphism is sometimes called a bicontinuous function. If such a function exists, ${\displaystyle X}$ and ${\displaystyle Y}$ are homeomorphic. A self-homeomorphism is a homeomorphism from a topological space onto itself. Being "homeomorphic" is an equivalence relation on topological spaces. Its equivalence classes are called homeomorphism classes.

The third requirement, that ${\textstyle f^{-1}}$ be continuous, is essential. Consider for instance the function ${\textstyle f:[0,2\pi )\to S^{1}}$ (the unit circle in ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{2}}$⁠) defined by${\textstyle f(\varphi )=(\cos \varphi ,\sin \varphi ).}$ This function is bijective and continuous, but not a homeomorphism (${\textstyle S^{1}}$ is compact but ${\textstyle [0,2\pi )}$ is not). The function ${\textstyle f^{-1}}$ is not continuous at the point ${\textstyle (1,0),}$ because although ${\textstyle f^{-1}}$ maps ${\textstyle (1,0)}$ to ${\textstyle 0,}$ any neighbourhood of this point also includes points that the function maps close to ${\textstyle 2\pi ,}$ but the points it maps to numbers in between lie outside the neighbourhood.^[4]

Homeomorphisms are the isomorphisms in the category of topological spaces. As such, the composition of two homeomorphisms is again a homeomorphism, and the set of all self-homeomorphisms ${\textstyle X\to X}$ forms a group, called the homeomorphism group of X, often denoted ${\textstyle \operatorname {Homeo} (X).}$ This group can be given a topology, such as the compact-open topology, which under certain assumptions makes it a topological group.^[5]

In some contexts, there are homeomorphic objects that cannot be continuously deformed from one to the other. Homotopy and isotopy are equivalence relations that have been introduced for dealing with such situations.

Similarly, as usual in category theory, given two spaces that are homeomorphic, the space of homeomorphisms between them, ${\textstyle \operatorname {Homeo} (X,Y),}$ is a

${\textstyle \operatorname {Homeo} (X)}$

${\textstyle \operatorname {Homeo} (Y),}$

${\displaystyle X}$

${\displaystyle Y,}$

• The open interval ${\textstyle (a,b)}$ is homeomorphic to the real numbers ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} }$⁠ for any ${\textstyle a<b.}$ (In this case, a bicontinuous forward mapping is given by ${\textstyle f(x)={\frac {1}{a-x}}+{\frac {1}{b-x}}}$ while other such mappings are given by scaled and translated versions of the tan or arg tanh functions).
• The unit 2-disc ${\textstyle D^{2}}$ and the unit square in ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{2}}$⁠ are homeomorphic; since the unit disc can be deformed into the unit square. An example of a bicontinuous mapping from the square to the disc is, in
  polar coordinates
  , $${\displaystyle (\rho ,\theta )\mapsto \left({\frac {\rho }{\max(|\cos \theta |,|\sin \theta |)}},\theta \right).}$$
• The graph of a differentiable function is homeomorphic to the domain of the function.
• A differentiable parametrization of a curve is a homeomorphism between the domain of the parametrization and the curve.
• A
  open subset of the manifold and an open subset of a Euclidean space
  .
• The stereographic projection is a homeomorphism between the unit sphere in ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{3}}$⁠ with a single point removed and the set of all points in ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{2}}$⁠ (a 2-dimensional plane).
• If ${\displaystyle G}$ is a topological group, its inversion map ${\displaystyle x\mapsto x^{-1}}$ is a homeomorphism. Also, for any ${\displaystyle x\in G,}$ the left translation ${\displaystyle y\mapsto xy,}$ the right translation ${\displaystyle y\mapsto yx,}$ and the inner automorphism ${\displaystyle y\mapsto xyx^{-1}}$ are homeomorphisms.

• ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{m}}$⁠ and ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}}$⁠ are not homeomorphic for m ≠ n.
• The Euclidean
  real line
  is not homeomorphic to the unit circle as a subspace of ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{2}}$⁠, since the unit circle is compact as a subspace of Euclidean ⁠${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{2}}$⁠ but the real line is not compact.
• The one-dimensional intervals ${\displaystyle [0,1]}$ and ${\displaystyle (0,1)}$ are not homeomorphic because one is compact while the other is not.

• Two homeomorphic spaces share the same
  complete
  and the other is not.
• A homeomorphism is simultaneously an
  closed mapping; that is, it maps open sets to open sets and closed sets
  to closed sets.
• Every self-homeomorphism in ${\displaystyle S^{1}}$ can be extended to a self-homeomorphism of the whole disk ${\displaystyle D^{2}}$ (Alexander's trick).

The intuitive criterion of stretching, bending, cutting and gluing back together takes a certain amount of practice to apply correctly—it may not be obvious from the description above that deforming a line segment to a point is impermissible, for instance. It is thus important to realize that it is the formal definition given above that counts. In this case, for example, the line segment possesses infinitely many points, and therefore cannot be put into a bijection with a set containing only a finite number of points, including a single point.

This characterization of a homeomorphism often leads to a confusion with the concept of

There is a name for the kind of deformation involved in visualizing a homeomorphism. It is (except when cutting and regluing are required) an isotopy between the identity map on X and the homeomorphism from X to Y.

• Local homeomorphism – Mathematical function revertible near each point
• Diffeomorphism – Isomorphism of differentiable manifolds
• uniform spaces
• metric spaces
• Homeomorphism group
• Dehn twist
• Homeomorphism (graph theory) – Concept in graph theory (closely related to graph subdivision)
• Homotopy#Isotopy – Continuous deformation between two continuous functions
• Mapping class group – Group of isotopy classes of a topological automorphism group
• Poincaré conjecture – Theorem in geometric topology
• Universal homeomorphism