Topology is a branch of mathematics packed with intriguing concepts, fascinating geometrical objects, and ingenious methods for studying them. The authors have written this textbook to make the material accessible to undergraduate students without requiring extensive prerequisites in upper-level mathematics. The approach is to cultivate the intuitive ideas of continuity, convergence, and connectedness so students can quickly delve into knot theory, the topology of surfaces and three-dimensional manifolds, fixed points and elementary homotopy theory. The fundamental concepts of point-set topology appear at the end of the book when students can see how this level of abstraction provides a sound logical basis for the geometrical ideas that have come before. This organization exposes students to the exciting world of topology now(!) rather than later. Students using this textbook should have some exposure to the geometry of objects in higher-dimensional Euclidean spaces together with an appreciation of precise mathematical definitions and proofs.

Classic, lively explanation of one of the byways of mathematics. Klein bottles, Moebius strips, projective planes, map coloring, problem of the Koenigsberg bridges, much more, described with clarity and wit.

Graduate students in mathematics, who want to travel light, will find this book invaluable; impatient young researchers in other fields will enjoy it as an instant reference to the highlights of modern analysis. Starting with general topology, it moves on to normed and seminormed linear spaces. From there it gives an introduction to the general theory of operators on Hilbert space, followed by a detailed exposition of the various forms the spectral theorem may take; from Gelfand theory, via spectral measures, to maximal commutative von Neumann algebras. The book concludes with two supplementary chapters: a concise account of unbounded operators and their spectral theory, and a complete course in measure and integration theory from an advanced point of view.

The first half of the book provides an introduction to general topology, with ample space given to exercises and carefully selected applications. The second half of the text includes topics in asymmetric topology, a field motivated by applications in computer science. Recurring themes include the interactions of topology with order theory and mathematics designed to model loss-of-resolution situations.

This work is suitable for undergraduate students as well as advanced students and research workers. It consists of ten chapters, the first six of which are meant for beginners and are therefore suitable for undergraduate students; Chapters VII-X are suitable for advanced students and research workers interested in functional analysis. This book has two special features: First, it contains generalizations of continuous maps on topological spaces, e. g. , almost continuous maps, nearly continuous maps, maps with closed graph, graphically continuous maps, w-continuous maps, and a-continuous maps, etc. and some of their properties. The treatment of these notions appears here, in Chapter VII, for the first time in book form. The second feature consists in some not-so-easily-available nuptial delights that grew out of the marriage of topology and functional analysis; they are topics mainly courted by functional analysts and seldom given in topology books. Specifically, one knows that the set C(X) of all real- or com plex-valued continuous functions on a completely regular space X forms a locally convex topological algebra, a fortiori a topological vector space, in the compact-open topology. A number of theorems are known: For example, C(X) is a Banach space iff X is compact, or C(X) is complete iff X is a kr-space, and so on. Chapters VIII and X include this material, which, to the regret of many interested readers has not previously been available in book form (a recent publication (Weir [\06]) does, however, contain some material of our Chapter X).

Concise work presents topological concepts in clear, elementary fashion, from basics of set-theoretic topology, through topological theorems and questions based on concept of the algebraic complex, to the concept of Betti groups. Includes 25 figures.