Proving $X/ \sim$ is Hausdorff

general-topology

Suppose $X$ is a topological space. Suppose there is an equivalence relation $\sim$ on $X$ where $x \sim y$ iff for any Hausdorff space $Y$ and every continuous map $f:X \rightarrow Y$ it holds that $f(x) = f(y)$. Define $X_H = X / \sim$ and equip it with the quotient topology. Suppose $\pi_H:X \rightarrow X_H$ is the canonical projection map.

I was able to prove that for for any Hausdorff space $Y$ and every continuous map $f:X \rightarrow Y$ it holds that there is a unique continuous function $f_H : X_H \rightarrow Y$ such that $f=f_H \circ \pi_H$.

I now want to prove that $X_H$ is a Hausdorff space. For this I thought that since $f_H$ is a unique continuous function and $Y$ is Hausdorff that this would complete the proof. So my question is: is it enough to say that since $f_H$ is continuous and $Y$ is Hausdorff that $X_H$ must be Hausdorff?

Maybe $f_H$ should be surjective?

Best Answer

For $x\neq y\in X_{H}\implies$ that $x,y$ are not related in $X$.

So there exist a pair $(Y,f)$ such that $Y$ is Hausdorff and $f$ is continuous from $X\to Y$ such that $f(x)\neq f(y)$.

So we take disjoint open nbds $U$, $V$ of $f(x),f(y)$ in $Y$.

Then $\bar{U}=\bar{f}^{-1}(U)$ and $\bar{V}=\bar{f}^{-1}(V)$ are open nbds of $x$ and $y$ in $X_{H}$ which are disjoint ,where $\bar{f}$ is such that $\bar{f}\circ \pi=f$

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