General Topology – Line with Two Origins is a Manifold but Not Hausdorff

general-topologymanifolds

The line with two origins is $(\mathbb{R} \times \{0,1\})/\sim$ where $(x,0)\sim(x,1)$ for $x\neq 0$. I can see that it is not Hausdorff, since we cannot separate the points $(0,0)$ and $(0,1)$.

However, I'm not quite clear on why it is a manifold, in particular why it is locally Euclidean. Please help me understand why this is so.

Best Answer

The key here is what is the topology on this space?

A possible base for this topology is $\mathcal B$ which contains all open balls not containing zero, and at zero, we either have $\{(-\varepsilon, 0) \cup \{\text{origin } A\} \cup (0, \varepsilon)\}$ and $\{(-\varepsilon, 0) \cup \{\text{origin } B\} \cup (0, \varepsilon)\}$.

Note: If you restrict the basis to rational endpoints, we get a countable basis, making the space second countable, which might also be in your definition of manifold.

Consider for instance $\{(-\varepsilon, 0) \cup \{\text{origin } A\} \cup (0, \varepsilon)\}$. There is an obvious bijection to $(-\varepsilon, \varepsilon)$ which is continuous and whose inverse is continuous.

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