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Let $A$ , $B$ be topological spaces such that there for some subset $D$ of $B$ there is a homeomorphism form $A$ to $D$ and for some subset $E$ of $A$ there is a homeomorphism form $B$ to $E$ ; then must there exist a homeomorphism from $A$ to $B$ ?

Asaf Karagila
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Souvik Dey
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3 Answers3

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No, consider $A=[0,1]$, $B=[0,1]\cup [2,3]$, $f:[0,1] \to [0,1]\cup [2,3] $ where $$ f(x) = x $$ and $g(x): [0,1]\cup [2,3]\to [0,1]$ with $$g(x) = \frac{x}{6}$$

Rustyn
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    And $A$ and $B$ aren't homeomorphic since one is connected while the other isn't. (I was just about to write this exact example, so I thought I would add just a little bit.) – Francis Adams Oct 22 '14 at 14:44
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Take $[0,1]$ and $(0,1)$ with their standard topologies in $\Bbb R$. Clearly they are not homeomorphic. But $[0,1]$ is homeomorphic to $[\frac14,\frac13]$ and $(0,1)$ is homeomorphic to itself.

Asaf Karagila
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I asked a related property: are there non-homeomorphic $X$ and $Y$ such that there is a continuous bijection from $X$ to $Y$ and from $Y$ to $X$ as well?

And this mathoverflow answers shows that we can have such examples. They're a bit harder to come up with, I think.

Henno Brandsma
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