I am trying to find an example of a separable Hausdorff space which has a non-separable subspace. This led me to ask the question in the title: is the set of irrationals, regarded as a subspace of the real line, separable or non-separable?
A space is separable if it contains a countable dense subset. A subset $A$ of a space $X$ is dense in $X$ if $\bar{A}=X$.
It's easy to come up with a dense set and a countable set in $\mathbb{R}\setminus\mathbb{Q}$, since (trivially) $\overline{\mathbb{R}\setminus\mathbb{Q}}=\mathbb{R}\setminus\mathbb{Q}$ in the subspace topology, and as a countable set we can take something like $\{k\pi \mid k \in \mathbb{Z}\}$. But is there a subset that is both dense AND countable? And of course, how do we prove the result?
Best Answer
$\Bbb R$ is second countable (i.e., has a countable base), so it’s hereditarily separable. Specifically, let $\mathscr{B}$ be the set of all open intervals with rational endpoints; $\Bbb Q$ is countable, so $\mathscr{B}$ is countable. Enumerate $\mathscr{B}=\{B_n:n\in\Bbb N\}$, and for $n\in\Bbb N$ let $x_n$ be any irrational number in $B_n$. Then $\{x_n:n\in\Bbb N\}$ is a countable dense subset of $\Bbb R\setminus\Bbb Q$. (Clearly the same trick works for any subset of $\Bbb R$, not just the irrationals.)
For an explicit example of such a set, let $\alpha$ be any irrational; then $\{p+\alpha:p\in\Bbb Q\}$ is a countable dense subset of $\Bbb R\setminus\Bbb Q$.
There are many separable Hausdorff spaces with non-separable subspaces. Two are mentioned in this answer to an earlier question. The first is compact; the second is Tikhonov and pseudocompact. Both are therefore quite nice spaces. Both are a bit complicated, however. A simpler example is the Sorgenfrey plane $\Bbb S$: $\Bbb Q\times\Bbb Q$ is a countable dense subset of $\Bbb S$, and $\{\langle x,-x\rangle:x\in\Bbb R\}$ is an uncountable discrete subset of $\Bbb S$ (which is obviously not separable as a subspace of $\Bbb S$).