1. Introduction
The concept of a topological space is generally introduced in terms of the axioms of the open sets. However, there are different methods to describe a topology on the set
X are often used in terms of neighborhood systems, the family of closed sets, the closure operator, the interior operator, etc. To each topological space
we can associate a closure operator
, where
is the smallest closed set which contains
A for each
. This closure operator have the following properties, (i)
(ii)
(iii)
c commutes with finite unions (iv)
c is idempotent. Such a closure operator is known as a topological closure operator or Kuratowski’s closure operator. In 1966, Edward Čech [
1] introduced Čech closure operators by weakening the idempotent law of topological closure operators. A set
X together with a Čech closure operator is called a Čech closure space. Thus Čech closure space can be considered as a generalization of topological spaces. Subsequently, Birkoff [
2] defined closure operator in another way by weakening the finite additivity property of the topological closure operator.
By extending the idea of crisp sets, Zadeh[
3] established the concept of fuzzy sets in 1965. Chang[
4] later gave fuzzy sets a topological structure. Later, the concept of fuzzy closure operators on a set
X was introduced separately by Mashhour, Ghanim [
5] and Srivastava et al.[
6]. The definition of Mashhour and Ghanim is an analogue of Čech closure operators. Srivastava et al. [
6] have introduced fuzzy closure operators as an analogue of Birkoff closure operator[
2]. Srivastava et al. [
7] introduced
and
separation properties in their fuzzy closure spaces. In their definition of fuzzy closure spaces, most of the properties will coincide with the fuzzy topology associated with it. Even the continuous maps of fuzzy closure spaces will be the same as that of it’s associated fuzzy topological spaces. So we are working on fuzzy closure spaces introduced by Mashhour and Ghanim [
5].
In 1985, Mashhour and Ghanim[
5] have introduced the fuzzy closure spaces and extended classical concepts such as subspaces, sums, and products. They have introduced ČF-continuity, compactness, and regularity and studied its properties. Also, they have investigated the interaction between fuzzy proximity spaces and fuzzy closure spaces. Johnson [
8] studied completely homogenous fuzzy closure spaces and lattices of fuzzy closure operators. In 2002, Sunil[
9] studied generalised-closed sets, and well closed fuzzy points in fuzzy closure spaces. He paid some attention to separation axioms such as
and quasi separation. But according to his definition, a fuzzy closure space is
(respectively, quasi separated) if its associated fuzzy topology is
(respectively, quasi separated). Further, he defined static fuzzy closure spaces, D-fuzzy closure spaces, and adjacent fuzzy closure operators. In 2007, Bloomy Joseph[
10] studied denseness in fuzzy closure spaces and fuzzy closure fuzzy convexity spaces. In 2014, Tapi and Deole ([
11][
12]) introduced various forms of connectedness in fuzzy closure spaces and fuzzy biclosure spaces. Rachna Navalakhe [
13] introduced separation axioms such as Hausdorff, regular and normal in fuzzy closure spaces. They have used fuzzy open sets for the separation. So according to their definition, a fuzzy closure space satisfies a certain separation property if its associated fuzzy topology also posses the same property. Their definitions are not an extension of separation axioms in Čech closure spaces. Also, she has studied generalised-closed sets, generalised forms of separation axioms,
-fuzzy closed sets, separation axioms using
-fuzzy closed sets, and studied analogous concepts in fuzzy biclosure spaces.
In this paper, we have introduced the interior operator and hence the neighborhood systems in fuzzy closure spaces. We have defined the notion of ČF-continuity at a fuzzy point. While defining separation axioms on fuzzy closure spaces, we want to make it an extension of that of Čech closure spaces and fuzzy topological spaces. Many authors have introduced separation axioms in fuzzy topological spaces differently. In L-topology [
14], it was introduced by using Q-neighborhoods. If we introduce separation axioms on fuzzy closure spaces using Q-neighborhoods, the closure operator will have no role. So we introduce it as an extension of separation properties of fuzzy topological spaces as introduced by Mashhur et al. [
15]. Using the neighborhood systems, we have introduced separation properties such as ČF
, ČF
, ČF
ČF-Urysohn, ČF-regular, and ČF-normal. Additive and productive properties of these separation axioms have been studied. All these separation properties are fuzzy closure properties. The relationships between these separation axioms are also discussed.
2. Preliminaries
This section contains some basic concepts and theorems about fuzzy topological spaces, Čech closure spaces, and fuzzy closure spaces which will be needed in the sequel. Throughout this paper etc. denotes non-empty ordinary sets, etc. denotes fuzzy sets defined on an ordinary set, and etc. denotes elements of ordinary sets.
Definition 1. [1] A Čech closure operator (also called a Č-closure operator, or simply a closure operator) on a set X is a function satisfying the following axioms:
- (i)
,
-
(ii)
, ,
-
(iii)
, .
The pair is called a Čech closure space or simply a closure space.
If
c satisfies idempotency also (i.e.,
,
), it will become a topological closure operator. Separation properties, connectedness, and compactness in Čech closure spaces are studied in [
16].
Let X be an ordinary non-empty set. A fuzzy set f on X is a mapping from X to the closed unit interval of the real line, associating each x of X with its membership value . The families and denote, respectively, the collections of all crisp subsets and all fuzzy subsets of X. The constant fuzzy sets and are given by assigning the value 0 and 1 to every element of X, respectively. The fuzzy set represents the fuzzy empty set, while corresponds to the fuzzy universal set. Let , denotes the fuzzy subset of X having membership value 1 on elements of A and 0 otherwise. For any fuzzy set f in X, by we mean the complement of f in X and is defined as, . Two fuzzy sets f and g of X are equal if for all . If , then f is said to be a subset of g.
Let X be a non-empty set. A fuzzy set f on X is defined as a mapping , where represents the degree of membership of each in f. The families and denote, respectively, the collections of all crisp subsets and all fuzzy subsets of X. The constant fuzzy sets and are given by assigning the value 0 and 1 to every element of X, respectively. For any subset , the characteristic fuzzy set is defined by if and otherwise. For a fuzzy set f on X, the complement is defined by for all . Two fuzzy sets f and g are said to be equal if for every . Moreover, if for all , then f is regarded as a fuzzy subset of g.
Definition 2.
[4] A fuzzy topology
on a set X is a family F of fuzzy subsets of X that satisfies the following conditions:
-
(i)
,
-
(ii)
if , then ,
-
(iii)
if for each , then .
The pair is called a fuzzy topological space (abbreviated as fts). The elements of F are referred to as open fuzzy subsets of X, while their complements are called closed fuzzy subsets. A fuzzy topological space with is said to be the indiscrete (or trivial) fuzzy topology, whereas if , it is referred to as the discrete fuzzy topology.
Definition 3. [4] Let f be a fuzzy subset of an fts . The closure of f is defined to be the fuzzy subset and is denoted by .
Definition 4.
[4] Let X and Y be two sets and let be a function. Then, for any fuzzy subset g of X, is a fuzzy subset in Y defined by
For a fuzzy subset h of Y, is a fuzzy subset of X defined by .
Definition 5.
[17] The fuzzy subset of X, with and defined by,
is called a fuzzy point in X with support x and value λ. Two fuzzy points with different supports are called distinct. When , is called a fuzzy singleton.
Definition 6. [18] Let be a fuzzy topological space and be a fuzzy point in X. If is again a fuzzy point, it is said to be well closed.
Definition 7. [14] Let f be a fuzzy subset of X, it’s support is defined as .
Definition 8. [15] A fuzzy topological space is said to be if for every pair of distinct fuzzy points and , there exist an such that or .
Definition 9. [15] A fuzzy topological space is said to be if and only if for every pair of distinct fuzzy points and , there exist open sets such that and .
Theorem 1. [19] A fuzzy topological space is if and only if every fuzzy singleton is closed.
Definition 10. [15] A fuzzy topological space is said to be (strong ) if every fuzzy point is closed.
Definition 11. [15] A fuzzy topological space is if for every pair of distinct fuzzy points and , there exists such that and and .
Definition 12. [15] A fuzzy topological space with the closure operator c is said to be or fuzzy Urysohn if for every pair of distinct fuzzy points and , there exist such that and and .
Definition 13. [15] A fuzzy topological space is said to be fuzzy regular if for all fuzzy point , and every closed fuzzy set k in X such that , there exist such that and and . A fuzzy regular space which is also is said to be .
Definition 14. [15] A fuzzy topological space is said to be fuzzy normal if for all closed fuzzy sets in X such that , there exists such that and and . A fuzzy normal space which is also is said to be .
Definition 15. [5] A Čech fuzzy closure operator (abbreviated as ČF-closure operator, or simply a fuzzy closure operator) on a set X is a mapping that satisfies the following axioms:
- (i)
,
-
(ii)
for all ,
-
(iii)
for all .
The pair is called a Čech fuzzy closure space (or fuzzy closure space, abbreviated as fcs). If, in addition, c satisfies the idempotent property, i.e., for all fuzzy subsets f of X, then c is said to be fuzzy topological.
Example 2. The fuzzy closure operator i defined by for every non-empty fuzzy subset f of is called the indiscrete fuzzy closure operator.
Similarly, the fuzzy closure operator d defined by is called the discrete fuzzy closure operator.
A Čech closure space
is said to be finitely generated[
20] if
for every. We can define an analogous concept in fuzzy closure spaces as follows.
Definition 16. An fcs is said to be finitely generated if for all .
The essential thing is that a finitely generated fuzzy closure operator is completely determined by its action on fuzzy points.
Definition 17. [5] Let be a fuzzy closure space (fcs), the fts , where is called the fts associated with . A fuzzy subset f of X is said to be closed in if .
Different fuzzy closure operators can associate the same fuzzy topology. For example, consider with a finitely generated fuzzy closure operator defined as for all , and the indiscrete fuzzy closure operator. Both fuzzy closure operators have the indiscrete fuzzy topology as their associated fuzzy topology.
Definition 18. [5] Let be an fcs and A be an ordinary subset of X. The function defined by is a ČF-closure operator on A. The corresponding pair is said to be a ČF-closure subspace of .
Definition 19. [5] Let be two fuzzy closure operators on a set X. Then, the fcs is said to be coarser than the fcs if for all and denoted by .
Definition 20. [5] Let and be fuzzy closure spaces. A mapping is called ČF-continuous if If θ is bijective and both θ and are ČF-continuous, then θ is termed a ČF-homeomorphism.
A fuzzy closure property refers to a structural property of fuzzy closure spaces that remains preserved under ČF-homeomorphisms.
Definition 21. [5] A fuzzy closure property is said to be hereditary; whenever a fuzzy closure space has that property, then so does every subspace of it.
Definition 22. [5] Let be a family of pairwise disjoint fuzzy closure spaces and . The function , defined by, is a ČF-closure operator on X. The pair is said to be the sum fuzzy closure space of the family .
Definition 23. [5] Let be a family of fuzzy closure spaces and . Define a function as, for a fuzzy point , and a fuzzy set f in X, if the following condition is satisfied. implies there exists an i such that for all t. The function is a ČF-closure operator on X. The pair is said to be the product fuzzy closure space of the family . Where is the projection from X to .
Theorem 3. [5] The product fcs is the coarsest fcs for which each projection is ČF-continuous.
3. Interior Operator and Neighborhood Systems
In this section, we introduce interior operators and neighborhood systems in fuzzy closure spaces and give some equivalent conditions for ČF-continuity and ČF-homeomorphism.
Definition 24. An interior operator ` int’ is a function from to itself defined by, , for each fuzzy subset f of X. A fuzzy subset f of X is said to be a neighborhood of if , if so we say that is an interior point of f. Furthermore, for a fuzzy subset k of X, f is called a neighborhood of k if .
Mashhur and Ghanim[
5] also used
, which is same as our interior operator for studying regularity and ČF-strongly continuous maps. But they haven’t identified it as an interior operator.
Example 4. We can easily find that the interior operator of indiscrete fcs is , and . Similarly, the interior operator of discrete fcs is, for all fuzzy sets f in X.
Example 5.
Let and define a closure operator on X by
The associated interior operator can be found as
Example 6.
On , define a fuzzy closure operator as follows. For each fuzzy point , set
and for an arbitrary fuzzy subset , define
Here we get, , and it follows that every neighborhood of the fuzzy point necessarily contains .
Remark 7. If the interior operator is given, we can find the closure operator as follows: .
Analogous to Čech closure spaces, the following results hold.
Theorem 8. Let be a fuzzy closure space. Then, for all , the following properties of the fuzzy interior operator hold:
-
1.
,
-
2.
,
-
3.
,
-
4.
If , then ,
-
5.
A fuzzy subset f of X is open if and only if ,
-
6.
A fuzzy subset f of X is open if and only if f is a neighborhood of every fuzzy point .
Proof.
- 1.
- 2.
Since
, it follows that
- 3.
-
Using the properties of the complement operator, we have
- 4.
If
, then
. By property 3,
- 5.
-
Suppose
f is open in
. Then
is closed, i.e.,
. Thus,
Conversely, if
, then
Taking complements, we obtain . Hence, is closed, and f is open.
- 6.
-
If
f is open, then
, so
f is a neighborhood of each fuzzy point contained in it. Conversely, suppose
f is a neighborhood of every fuzzy point
. Then, we have
which implies,
Therefore, , and hence f is open.
□
Here we introduce the notion of ČF-continuity at a fuzzy point and subsequently employ it to derive an equivalent criterion for ČF-continuity.
Definition 25. A function is said to be ČF-continuous at a fuzzy point if for some fuzzy subset f of X, then .
Theorem 9. A function is ČF-continuous if and only if it is ČF-continuous at every fuzzy point of X.
Proof. (⇒) Suppose
is ČF-continuous. Then, by definition,
Let
be a fuzzy point in
X. If
, then
Thus,
is ČF-continuous at the fuzzy point
.
(⇐) Conversely, assume that
is ČF-continuous at every fuzzy point of
X. For any fuzzy subset
, we have
Since
is ČF-continuous at each fuzzy point, it follows that
whenever
. Consequently,
Hence,
is ČF-continuous. □
Another characterization theorem for ČF-continuous functions can be found as follows:
Theorem 10.
Let and be fuzzy closure spaces. A mapping is ČF-continuous if and only if
Proof. (⇒) Suppose that
is ČF-continuous. By definition, we have
Taking
for an arbitrary
, it follows that
Applying
to both sides yields
(⇐) Conversely, assume that
Let
, and set
and
. Then
Since
, we obtain
Therefore,
is ČF-continuous. □
Corollary 11. If is ČF-continuous, then the inverse image of each open (respectively, closed) fuzzy subset of Y is open (respectively, closed) in X.
Proof. Let
g be a closed fuzzy subset of
, i.e.,
. By the above theorem, we have
Thus,
, showing that
is closed in
. By duality, the result also holds for open fuzzy subsets. □
Remark 12.
The converse of the preceding corollary does not hold in general. Consider the set equipped with the fuzzy closure operator c defined by
Define a mapping by
Since the fuzzy topology associated with is the indiscrete fuzzy topology, the inverse image of every open set under θ is again open.
However, consider . Then
while
Thus,
showing that θ fails to be ČF-continuous.
Theorem 13. Let and be fuzzy closure spaces. A bijective function is a ČF-homeomorphism if and only if
Proof. (⇒) Assume that
is a ČF-homeomorphism. Then, by definition,
for all
and
. Substituting
, we obtain
which implies
Combining this with
, we conclude that
(⇐) Conversely, suppose that
for all
. Clearly,
, hence
is ČF-continuous. Also we have
, replacing
f by
, we get
which simplifies to
Therefore,
showing that
is also ČF-continuous. Thus,
is a ČF-homeomorphism. □
4. ČF Fuzzy Closure Spaces
Definition 26. A fuzzy closure space is ČF if for every two distinct fuzzy points and , either or .
It can be noted that if c is a fuzzy topological closure operator, then the fuzzy closure space satisfies the ČF axiom if and only if the associated fuzzy topological space is .
Remark 14. Every subspace of a ČF space is ČF. (That is, ČF is a hereditary property.)
Remark 15. Let and be two fuzzy closure operators on X such that . If is ČF, then is also ČF.
Theorem 16. If is , then is ČF.
Proof. Assume that
is
, and let
be two fuzzy points. Since
is
, there exists an
such that
This yields
Moreover, as
f is open,
is closed. Thus, if
, then
Consequently,
From this, we can deduce that . Hence satisfies the ČF property. □
Remark 17. The converse of the preceding theorem does not hold in general. Indeed, consider the following example:
Let and define a finitely generated fuzzy closure operator c on X by
and for any other fuzzy subset f of X, define
It is straightforward to verify that c is a fuzzy closure operator, although it is not induced by any fuzzy topology. Indeed, we observe that
Hence, the fuzzy closure space satisfies the ČF separation axiom. However, the indiscrete fuzzy topology, which is not .
Theorem 18. The property ČF is preserved under ČF-Homeomorphisms; that is, ČF is a fuzzy closure property.
Proof. Let be a ČF-homeomorphism, and assume that is ČF. Consider two distinct fuzzy points and in . Then there exist such that and .
Since
is ČF
, we may assume that
Applying
, we obtain
Thus,
also satisfies the ČF
condition. Therefore, ČF
is a fuzzy closure property. □
Theorem 19.
A fuzzy closure space is ČF if and only if for every pair of distinct fuzzy points and , there exists an such that either
Proof. (⇒) Suppose
is ČF
, and let
and
be two distinct fuzzy points in
X. By the ČF
property, we may assume
Let . Then , and since , we obtain the desired condition.
(⇐) Conversely, assume that for distinct fuzzy points
and
there exists
such that
and
. Since
, we have
which implies
But
, and hence
Therefore, the ČF
condition holds. □
The following theorems show the additive and productive properties of the ČF separation axiom.
Theorem 20. Let be a family of pairwise disjoint fuzzy closure spaces. Let denote their sum. Then is ČF if and only if each is ČF.
Proof. (⇒) Assume that each is ČF. Let and be two distinct fuzzy points in . We consider two cases:
Case (i): Suppose
for some
. Since
is ČF
, either
Now, note that
and similarly
. Hence, it follows that either
Case (ii): Suppose
and
with
. Then, by construction,
Thus,
is ČF
.
(⇐) Conversely, suppose that
is ČF
. Let
be two distinct fuzzy points in
for some
. Considering
and
as fuzzy points of
, the ČF
property ensures that
Since
it follows that either
Therefore,
is ČF
for all
. □
Lemma 21. Let be a family of fuzzy closure spaces, and let denote their product. For , let denote its coordinate. Then, for any fuzzy point , its closure in the product space is given by
Proof. Suppose
. By Definition 23, this implies that for every
we have
Hence,
Conversely, assume
. Then, for each
, we have
If
can be expressed as a finite join,
then, since the join is finite, at least one
. Consequently,
Therefore,
Thus, we conclude that
□
Theorem 22. Let be a family of fuzzy closure spaces. Then the product space is ČF whenever each factor space is ČF.
Proof. Assume that each
is ČF
. Suppose, for the sake of contradiction, that the product space
is not ČF
. Then there exist distinct fuzzy points
such that
This implies that
and hence
From Lemma 21, we have
which implies that
Equivalently,
which yields
By a similar argument, we also obtain
This contradicts the assumption that each is ČF. Therefore, the assumption that is not ČF must be false. Hence, the product space is ČF. □
5. ČF Fuzzy Closure Spaces
Definition 27. A fuzzy closure space is ČF if for every two distinct fuzzy points , and .
Clearly, every fuzzy topological space can be viewed as a ČF fuzzy closure space.
Remark 23. The ČF separation property is hereditary. Additionally, if and are fuzzy closure operators on X satisfying , then being ČF implies that is also ČF.
Theorem 24. A fuzzy closure space is ČF if and only if every fuzzy point is well closed.
Proof.
Assume that is ČF. Suppose, to the contrary, that there exists a fuzzy point which is not well closed. Then, there exists some , with , such that for some . Consider the fuzzy points and . Clearly, , which contradicts the assumption that is ČF. Hence, the assumption is false, and every fuzzy point must be well closed.
Conversely, assume that every fuzzy point is well closed. Then, for all distinct and for all , we have . Consequently, and . Therefore, is a ČF fcs. □
Lemma 25. In a fuzzy closure space , every fuzzy point is well closed if and only if every fuzzy singleton is closed.
Proof.
Assume that every fuzzy point in is well closed. In particular, each fuzzy singleton is well closed, which implies .
Conversely, suppose for every . Then, for any fuzzy point with , we have which shows that is well closed. □
Theorem 26. A fuzzy closure space is ČF if and only if every fuzzy singleton in X is closed.
Proof. The result follows immediately from Theorem 24 and Lemma 25. □
As a direct consequence of the above characterization, we obtain the following result.
Theorem 27. A fuzzy closure space is ČF if and only if its associated fuzzy topological space is .
Proof. This statement follows directly from Theorem 1 and Theorem 26. □
Definition 28. A fuzzy closure space is said to be ČF (or strongly ČF) if every fuzzy point is closed.
It is immediate that every ČF space is also ČF. In the setting of Čech closure spaces, every finite space is discrete. An analogous result in the context of fuzzy closure spaces is stated below.
Theorem 28. Every finite ČF fuzzy closure space is discrete.
Proof. Straightforward. □
Remark 29. Every ČF fuzzy closure space is ČF. However, the converse does not hold in general, as demonstrated by the following counterexample.
Consider the set of natural numbers equipped with the fuzzy closure operator c defined by for other fuzzy subsets f of .
If , then
On the other hand, if , we obtain
From this, it follows that satisfies the condition. However, every fuzzy point in is not well-closed. Therefore, is not ČF.
Theorem 30. The property ČF is a fuzzy closure property.
Proof. Let
and
be two fuzzy closure spaces, and let
be a ČF-homeomorphism. Suppose
is a fuzzy singleton in
Y. Then there exists an
such that
Since
is a homeomorphism, we have
Thus,
is closed in
. Hence, if
is ČF
, then
is also ČF
. Therefore, ČF
is preserved under ČF-homeomorphisms, and consequently it is a fuzzy closure property. □
Theorem 31. A fuzzy closure space is ČF if and only if for every pair of distinct fuzzy points and , there exists such that and .
Proof. Similar proof as in the case of ČF fcs. □
In the following theorems, we prove additive and productive properties of the ČF separation axiom in fuzzy closure spaces.
Theorem 32. Let be a family of pairwise disjoint fuzzy closure spaces. Then their sum is ČF if and only if each is ČF.
Proof.
Suppose that is ČF. Let be a fuzzy singleton in , for some . Since is ČF, treating as a fuzzy singleton of , we have
By the definition of the sum closure operator,
Thus,
, which shows that
is ČF
. Since
was arbitrary, it follows that each
is ČF
.
Conversely, suppose that each
is ČF
for all
. Let
be a fuzzy singleton in
. Then there exists a unique
such that
. Since
is ČF
, we have
Therefore,
Hence, the sum space
is ČF
. □
Theorem 33. Let be a family of fuzzy closure spaces. Then their product is ČF if and only if each factor space is ČF.
Proof.
Suppose that each
is ČF
. Let
. We must show that
is well closed in
. If
, then by the definition of the product fuzzy closure, this means
that is,
Since
is ČF
, it follows that,
which implies
for all
. Hence,
, and therefore
is well closed. Thus,
is ČF
.
Conversely, assume that
is ČF
. Suppose, for contradiction, that there exists
such that
is not ČF
. Then there exists a fuzzy singleton
in
that is not closed. Consequently, there exists
in
such that
Now, for each
, choose
such that
. Consider the fuzzy points
and
in
. Then, for each
,
and for
, by assumption,
Therefore,
which implies that is not closed in .
This contradicts the assumption that is ČF. Hence, is ČF for all . □
6. ČF Fuzzy Closure Spaces
Definition 29. A fuzzy closure space is said to be ČF or Čech fuzzy Hausdorff if for every pair of distinct fuzzy points and in X, there exist two neighborhoods f and g of and respectively such that and and .
It is evident that every fuzzy topological space is a ČF fuzzy closure space. Let are two fuzzy closure operators on X such that ; if is ČF, then is also ČF.
Theorem 34. If is fts, then is ČF fcs.
Proof. The proof is trivial since every open set containing in is a neighborhood of in . □
Theorem 35. Every ČF fuzzy closure space is ČF.
Proof. Let
be a ČF
fuzzy closure space, and let
and
be two distinct fuzzy points in
X. By the ČF
property, there exist neighborhoods
f of
and
g of
such that
Since
, we obtain
By the definition of interior,
Thus,
Similarly, . Therefore, is ČF. □
Theorem 36. Every finite ČF fuzzy closure space is ČF.
Proof. Let be a ČF fuzzy closure space, where is a finite set. By the ČF property, each fuzzy singleton is closed. Since here the complement of a fuzzy singleton is also closed, it follows that every fuzzy singleton is open as well.
Now, let
and
be two distinct fuzzy points of
X. Define
Since
f and
g are fuzzy singletons, we have
Therefore,
Hence, f and g form disjoint neighborhoods that separate and , demonstrating that satisfies the ČF condition. □
But in general, every ČF space is not ČF. For, consider the example below.
Example 37.
Let X be an infinite set, and define a fuzzy closure operator c on X as follows:
It is straightforward to verify that c is a fuzzy closure operator, but not a fuzzy topological closure operator. Since every fuzzy singleton is closed, it follows that is ČF. We now examine the interiors of fuzzy subsets of X:
Case 1. If is infinite, then and hence
Case 2. If f takes the value 1 at all but finitely many points of X. Let Then , and
Thus,
From these observations, it follows that we cannot obtain two fuzzy subsets f and g of X with non-empty interiors such that . Therefore, is not ČF.
Remark 38. Every subspace of a ČF fuzzy closure space is ČF. (i.e., ČF is a hereditary property.)
Lemma 39.
If is a ČF-homeomorphism, then for every fuzzy subset f of X, we have
Proof. Since
is a ČF-homeomorphism, we have,
Using these identities, we compute:
□
Theorem 40. ČF is a fuzzy closure property.
Proof. Let
and
be fuzzy closure spaces (fcs’s), and let
be a ČF-homeomorphism. Consider two distinct fuzzy points
. Since
is bijective, there exist distinct points
such that
By assumption, is ČF. Hence, there exist neighborhoods and of and , respectively, which separate these fuzzy points. By the preceding lemma, the images and are neighborhoods of and , respectively, and they separate and in .
Thus, is ČF. Therefore, the property ČF is preserved under ČF-homeomorphisms, and hence it is a fuzzy closure property. □
Lemma 41. Let be a family of pairwise disjoint fuzzy closure spaces and let be their sum. Then, .
Proof. By definition,
. Thus,
□
Theorem 42. Let be a family of pairwise disjoint fuzzy closure spaces. Then the sum is ČF if and only if each is ČF.
Proof.
Assume that
is ČF
. Let
and
be two distinct fuzzy points in
for some
. Considering
and
as fuzzy points of the ČF
fuzzy closure space
, there exist neighborhoods
of
and
, respectively, such that
Consider the fuzzy sets
and
. Since
we deduce that
and similarly,
Thus, the neighborhoods
and
separate
and
in
. Hence,
is ČF
for all
.
Conversely, suppose that is ČF for all . Let be distinct fuzzy points.
Case (1): If
for some
, then there exist disjoint neighborhoods
containing
and
, respectively. Considering
f and
g as fuzzy subsets of
X, and by the preceding lemma, we have
Thus,
f and
g also separate
and
in
.
Case (2): If
and
with
, then since
we may take
and
as neighborhoods of
and
, respectively, in
. These clearly separate
and
.
Hence, is ČF. □
6.1. ČF Fuzzy Closure Spaces
Definition 30. A fuzzy closure space is said to be ČF or ČF-Urysohn if and only if for every pair of distinct fuzzy points and , there exist two neighborhoods f and g of and respectively such that and and .
Every ČF-Urysohn fcs is ČF fcs. If is fuzzy Urysohn, then is ČF-Urysohn. Since a fuzzy closure space is ČF iff every fuzzy singleton is closed, we can easily get that every finite ČF space is Č. Also we can find that Č is a hereditary property.
Theorem 43. ČF is a fuzzy closure property.
Proof. Similar proof as that of ČF spaces. □
Theorem 44. Let be a family of pairwise disjoint fuzzy closure spaces. The sum is a ČF space if and only if each is a ČF space.
Proof. Similar proof as that of the sum of ČF spaces. □
7. ČF-Regular Fuzzy Closure Spaces
Definition 31. A fuzzy closure space is said to be ČF-regular if for each fuzzy point in X and each non-empty fuzzy subset k of X such that , there exists neighborhoods f of and g of k such that . A ČF-regular fcs which is also is said to be ČF.
The indiscrete fuzzy closure operator is ČF-regular. Consequently, ČF-regularity does not imply ČF property or any of the weaker separation properties in the hierarchy below it. However, it can be readily verified that every ČF space is also a ČF space. Furthermore, if c is a fuzzy topological closure operator, then the fts is fuzzy regular () if and only if the fcs is ČF-regular (ČF).
Remark 45. The fts being fuzzy regular does not necessarily imply that is ČF-regular fcs. This is demonstrated in the following example.
Example 46. Consider the set equipped with a fuzzy closure operator c defined as follows: , for any fuzzy point , and for any fuzzy set , . The associated fuzzy topological space is indiscrete and is fuzzy regular.
Let , and consider the fuzzy point and the fuzzy set . It can be observed that every neighborhood of the fuzzy point contains the fuzzy set . Since , and every neighborhood of k contains , it follows that and k cannot be separated. Therefore, is not a ČF regular fuzzy closure space.
Remark 47. Every ČF-Urysohn (or ČF) space need not be ČF-regular. This can be seen from the following example.
Example 48.
Fix an element and define a finitely generated fuzzy closure operator c on as follows:
It can be verified that c is a fuzzy closure operator but not fuzzy topological. Since every fuzzy singleton is closed, is ČF. For any two distinct fuzzy points , the fuzzy sets and separate these points, and . Hence, is ČF-Urysohn (and also Č).
If , then
Similarly, if , then . Consider the fuzzy point and the fuzzy set . Clearly, . Every neighborhood f of contains , and every neighborhood g of contains , so . Therefore, is not ČF-regular, and hence not ČF.
Remark 49. It is important to note that not every ČF-regular space is necessarily a ČF space.
Consider a set X with at least two elements, and define a fuzzy closure operator c by
If such that , the fuzzy sets and will separate and k. Hence, the space is ČF-regular. However, it does not satisfy the ČF condition, and therefore it is not a ČF space.
Mashhour and Ghanim[
5] defined regular fcs differently, as follows:
Definition 32. [5] A fuzzy closure space is said to be regular if for all fuzzy points and a fuzzy set k in X such that , there exists a fuzzy set f in X such that .
We can discuss the difference between these two definitions. The two definitions of regularity agree on fuzzy topological spaces. The closure operator on any set X is a regular fcs on both these definitions. We can see that Example 48 is a non-regular fcs as defined by Mashhur and Ghanim.
Theorem 50. If a fuzzy closure space is regular according to Mashhour’s definition, then it is a ČF-regular fuzzy closure space.
Proof. Let
be a regular fuzzy closure space according to Mashhour’s definition. Let
be a fuzzy point in
X and
such that
. This implies that
Since
is regular (by the definition of Mashhour), there exists
such that
Now,
Therefore,
Since
, we obtain
. Thus,
f and
are neighborhoods that separate
and
k. Hence,
is ČF-regular. □
Remark 51. The property of ČF-regularity is hereditary; that is, any subspace of a ČF-regular fuzzy closure space retains the ČF-regularity property.
Theorem 52. ČF-regularity is a fuzzy closure property.
Proof. Let
be a ČF-homeomorphism, and assume that
is a ČF-regular fcs. Let
be a fuzzy point in
Y and
such that
. Since
is a ČF-homeomorphism,
is a fuzzy point in
X. Now consider the fuzzy point
and the fuzzy set
. The condition
implies that
where the equalities follow from the properties of ČF-homeomorphisms.
Since
is ČF-regular, there exist neighborhoods
f and
g of
and
, respectively, such that
. This inequality implies that
By Lemma 39,
is a neighborhood of
and
is a neighborhood of
k. Therefore,
is ČF-regular. □
Theorem 53. Let be a family of pairwise disjoint fuzzy closure spaces. The sum is ČF-regular if and only if each is ČF-regular.
Proof. (⇒)Assume that the sum is ČF-regular. Let be a fuzzy point in for some , and let k be a fuzzy subset of such that . Viewing and k as fuzzy subsets of X and , the ČF-regularity of implies the existence of fuzzy subsets that separate and k in X. Define and , where is the characteristic function of . These fuzzy subsets separate and k in , demonstrating that is ČF-regular for all .
(⇐) Conversely, assume that each is ČF-regular for all . Let be a fuzzy point in X and a fuzzy subset such that . Suppose for some . Two cases arise:
- 1.
Case 1: . Choose and . These fuzzy subsets separate and k in X.
- 2.
Case 2: . Since is ČF-regular, there exist fuzzy subsets that separate and in . Extend these to X by defining (extended by zero outside ) and . These fuzzy subsets separate and k in X.
Thus, in both cases, and k can be separated in , proving that is ČF-regular. Therefore, the sum is ČF-regular if and only if each is ČF-regular. □
8. ČF-Normal Fuzzy Closure Spaces
Definition 33. A fuzzy closure space is said to be ČF-normal if, for all non-empty pair of fuzzy subsets such that , there exists neighborhoods of and , respectively, satisfying . A ČF-normal fcs that is also Č is defined to be ČF.
As in the case of fuzzy topological spaces, a ČF-normal fuzzy closure space (fcs) is not necessarily ČF-regular. In fact, Example 46 provides an example of a ČF-normal fcs that fails to be ČF-regular. Moreover, every ČF fcs is clearly ČF. Since the indiscrete topology is ČF-normal, it follows that ČF-normality does not necessarily imply the ČF axiom, nor any weaker separation axioms lying below it. Furthermore, if c is a fuzzy topological closure operator, then is a fuzzy normal () fts if and only if is a ČF-normal (ČF) fcs.
Remark 54. is a fuzzy normal fts does not imply that is a ČF-normal fcs.
Consider the fuzzy closure operator c defined on the fuzzy subsets of as follows:
where denotes the characteristic function of the subset , taking the value 1 on A and 0 elsewhere.
The fuzzy topology associated with is indiscrete, implying that is fuzzy normal. The corresponding interior operator on this space is given by
For the fuzzy subsets and , it can be observed that . Since the smallest neighborhoods of and are and respectively, we can see that these two fuzzy subsets cannot be separated in . Hence is not ČF-normal.
Example 55. Let X be a non-empty set. Fix an , and define a fuzzy closure operator c as and if , , and for other fuzzy subsets f of X. We can see that, this finitely generated fcs is ČF-normal.
Remark 56. Every finite ČF-regular (ČF) fcs is ČF-normal (ČF). In general, every finitely generated ČF-regular (ČF) fcs is ČF-normal (ČF). Moreover, ČF-normality is both a hereditary property and a fuzzy closure property.
Theorem 57. Let be a family of pairwise disjoint fuzzy closure spaces. The sum is ČF-normal if and only if each is ČF-normal.
Proof.
Assume that the sum is ČF-normal. For any , let be two fuzzy subsets of such that . Extend and to fuzzy subsets of X by defining and for . By the Čech fuzzy normality of , there exist fuzzy subsets that separate and in X. The restrictions and in then separate and in . Hence, is ČF-normal for each .
Conversely suppose that each is ČF-normal for all . Let be fuzzy subsets of X such that . For each , the restrictions and belong to , and the condition holds. By the ČF-normality of , there exist fuzzy subsets that separate and . Define and in . These fuzzy subsets f and g separate and in X, proving that is ČF-normal. □
9. Conclusions and Future Research
Fuzzy topological spaces do not constitute a natural boundary for the validity of theorems, but many theorems can be extended to what are called fuzzy closure spaces. In this study, we defined interior operator in fuzzy closure spaces, as well as neighborhood systems and found an equivalent condition for ČF-continuity. We established a number of separation axioms, including ČF,ČF,ČF,ČF,ČF,ČF, ČF-Urysohn, ČF-regular, and ČF-normal, using the neighborhood system. We have discovered certain characteristics of these separation axioms. Here are some questions that need more attention. Productive behaviour of some separation axioms are discovered, others yet to be investigated. We have found a characterization theorem for ČF fcs. Researchers can investigate the characterization theorem for other separation axioms. Identify the lattice of ČF, ČF, ČF etc fuzzy closure operators. Extend all these concepts to L-closure spaces.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, A.J. and T.P.J.; investigation, A.J.; writing—original draft preparation, A.J.; writing—review and editing, A.J. and T.P.J.; supervision, T.P.J.. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Data Availability Statement
All data supporting the reported findings in this research paper are provided within the manuscript.
Acknowledgments
First author is supported by the Senior Research Fellowship of CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India). During the preparation of this manuscript, the author(s) employed AI-based tools, including ChatGPT, Grok, and others, to enhance the clarity and language of the text.. The authors have reviewed and edited the output and take full responsibility for the content of this publication.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Abbreviations
The following abbreviations are used in this manuscript:
| fcs |
fuzzy closure space |
| fts |
fuzzy topological space |
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