Infinite dimensional separable Hilbert spaces having an open countable dense subset

functional-analysisgeneral-topology

While working on infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces, I came up with the following question: under what conditions is the existence of an open dense countable subset assured? If we assume that the space is separable, we are certain that a part of this question is answered. But what about an open dense countable subset? For instance (this example is not related to infinite dimensional spaces), $\mathbb{Q}$ is countable and dense in $\mathbb{R}$ (under the usual topology), but it is neither open nor closed. Is there any condition that assures the existence of at least one such open subset?

Best Answer

A non-empty open set in $\mathbb R$ (or any Hilbert space $\neq \{0\}$) is necessarily uncountable. Hence you can never have such a set.