Alphabeta Math
ExampleConstruction: Literature-sourcedVerification: AI-adaptedverified 2026-09-26 (gpt-6-sol)
How statement and proof provenance work

The first chip identifies the source of the statement or construction; the second identifies the source of its local proof or verification.

  • Literature-sourced: the exact statement appears in a cited source; only wording and notation differ.
  • AI-adapted: a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
  • AI-generated: a genuinely novel statement formulated by AI, with no source for the claim itself.

These labels describe origin, not correctness: citations and verification chips remain separate evidence.

Trivial coverings are products with a discrete fibre

Example

If X is any space and F is a nonempty discrete space, the projection X×F→X is a trivial covering with fibre F. If X=∅, the same holds for F=∅; for nonempty X, an empty fibre would violate surjectivity.

Facts & Assumptions

Given: The objects, hypotheses, and choice principles stated above.

[F1]

A covering map is a continuous surjection p:E→B such that every b∈B has an open neighbourhood U for which p−1(U) is a disjoint union of open sets Vj, called sheets, and each restriction p∣Vj:Vj→U is a homeomorphism (def-continuous-map-top, def-homeomorphism-and-open-maps, def-disjoint-union-topology). Such a U is evenly covered, and p−1(b) is the fibre over b. A covering is trivial when it is isomorphic over B to a product projection B×F→B with F discrete. (Covering maps, evenly covered neighbourhoods, fibres, sheets, and trivial coverings).

[F2]

The product set. Let I be a set and let Xi be a set for each i∈I. The product is ∏i∈IXi  :=  { x:x is a function with domain I and x(i)∈Xi for every i∈I }, and we write xi:=x(i), the i-th coordinate of x. Two elements of the product are equal exactly when they agree at every index, functions being equal when they have the same domain and the same values. For j∈I the j-th projection is πj:∏i∈IXi→Xj,πj(x):=xj.. The product topology TΠ on ∏iXi is the initial topology of the projections: the topology generated by the subbasis {πi−1[U]:i∈I, U∈Ti}. Finite intersections of subbasic sets form a basis for it, and they are exactly the boxes ∏i∈IUi with every Ui open in Xi and Ui=Xi for all but finitely many i. (The product set ∏i∈IXi of functions choosing a point in each factor, the projections, the box topology, and the product topology as the initial topology of the projections; the empty product is a one-point space).

[F3]

Throughout, a topology is as in def-topological-space, and finite, at most countable and uncountable are as in def-countable, so that "countable" always means "at most countable" and every finite set is countable. Let X be a set. The six families below are topologies on X; that each really satisfies (T1), (T2) and (T3) is discharged in full after the list. Among those six is the discrete topology Tdisc:=P(X), in which every subset is open and hence every subset is also closed. (The discrete, indiscrete, cofinite, cocountable, particular-point and Sierpinski topologies).

Verification

technique · direct
1.1givenF1F2F3

The projection p:X×F→X is continuous by the product topology. When F is nonempty, it is surjective. For every open U⊆X, p−1(U)=U×F=⨆f∈F(U×{f}). Each U×{f} is open because F is discrete, and p restricts to a homeomorphism from that sheet onto U, with inverse x↦(x,f). Hence every open U is evenly covered, as required by [F1].

2.1step 1.1F1F2

The fibre over x∈X is {x}×F, canonically identified with F. The identity map over X identifies this covering with the product projection, so it is trivial. If X=∅, the map ∅×F→∅ is a covering even when F=∅, since surjectivity and the evenly covered condition are vacuous. If X≠∅ and F=∅, the projection is not surjective.

3.1step 2.1∎

The preceding construction and implications establish the assertion.

Depends on

Used by

Dependency tree · two levels

23 results within two dependency steps of this one, each drawn at its shortest distance from it. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, so the chart reads left to right and ends at this result, which carries a heavier outline. Every node is a link to that result. Click elsewhere on the chart to enlarge it.

Sources