Topology Proceedings Web: http://topology.auburn.edu/tp/ Mail: Topology Proceedings Department of Mathematics & Statistics Auburn University, Alabama 36849, USA E-mail:
[email protected] ISSN: 0146-4124 COPYRIGHT °c by Topology Proceedings. All rights reserved. Topology Proceedings Volume 22, Summer 1997, 175-200 FINITE APPROXIMATION OF COMPACT HAUSDORFF SPACES R. D. Kopperman* and R. G. Wilsont Abstract We consider the question of how to approximate Hausdorff spaces by representing them as the Hausdorff reflection of inverse limits of finite spaces. Our principal theorem states that a T2 space is approximable in this sense if and only if it is compact. We also consider connectedness in this context and among other results we show that a space is approximable by finite connected spaces if and only if it is a continuum. A number of these results explain and extend theorems of Flachsmeyer [FI] in a bitopological setting. o. Motivation How should one study the properties of a compact Hausdorff space? Over thirty years ago, Flachsmeyer [FI] suggested one approach, namely, to approximate the compact space by means of finite To-spaces. His work went largely unnoticed by topol ogists (indeed, we were unaware of it until we had obtained * Supported by CUNY-PSC grants 667386 and 668440. t Supported by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia grant no.400200-5-3012-P-E. Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 54D30, 54E55; Sec ondary: 54D05 Key words: PseudoHausdorff, also joincompact bitopological space, pairwise continuous function. Skew compact, also spectral topological space, its de Groot dual, Ti-refiection, or spectral compactifications; skew continuum; finite approximation of a topological space.