Contents

# Contents

## Idea

The small and large inductive dimensions, together with the Lebesgue covering dimension are the three main notions of dimension for topological spaces. They coincide in some, but not all, cases.

## Small inductive dimension

The small inductive dimension (alias Menger–Urysohn dimension) $ind(X)$ of a regular topological space $X$ is defined as follows: $ind(\emptyset)=-1$ and $ind(X)\le n$ ($n\ge0$) if for any $x\in X$ and any neighborhood $V\subset X$ of $x$ there is an open subset $U\subset X$ such that $x\in U$, $U\subset V$, and $ind(\bar U\setminus U)\le n-1$.

## Large inductive dimension

The large inductive dimension (alias Brouwer–Čech dimension) $Ind(X)$ of a normal topological space $X$ is defined as follows: $Ind(\emptyset)=-1$ and $Ind(X)\le n$ ($n\ge0$) if for any closed subset $A\subset X$ and any open subset $V\subset X$ such that $A\subset V$ there is an open subset $U\subset X$ such that $A\subset U\subset V$ and $Ind(\bar U\setminus U)\le n-1$.

## Properties

The subspace theorem: for every subspace $M$ of a regular space $X$ we have $ind(M)\le ind(X)$. (Theorem 1.1.2 in Engelking95.)

notion of dimension

## References

• Ryszard Engelking, Dimension Theory, Mathematical Library 19, North-Holland Publishing/Polish Scientific Publishers 1978 (pdf)

• Ryszard Engelking, Theory of Dimensions – Finite and Infinite, Sigma Series in Pure Mathematics 10, Helderman 1995 (pdf)

Last revised on March 21, 2021 at 11:48:58. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.