Sequential convergence in topological spaces

Anthony Goreham

Published 2004-12-31, updated 2016-04-10Version 2

In this survey, my aim has been to discuss the use of sequences and countable sets in general topology. In this way I have been led to consider five different classes of topological spaces: first countable spaces, sequential spaces, Frechet spaces, spaces of countable tightness and perfect spaces. We are going to look at how these classes are related, and how well the various properties behave under certain operations, such as taking subspaces, products, and images under proper mappings. Where they are not well behaved we take the opportunity to consider some relevant examples, which are often of special interest. For instance, we examine an example of a Frechet space with unique sequential limits that is not Hausdorff. I asked the question of whether there exists in ZFC an example of a perfectly normal space that does not have countable tightness: such an example was supplied and appears below. In our discussion we shall report two independence theorems, one of which forms the solution to the Moore-Mrowka problem. The results that we prove below include characterisation theorems of sequential spaces and Frechet spaces in terms of appropriate classes of continuous mappings, and the theorem that every perfectly regular countably compact space has countable tightness.