In topology and related areas of mathematics, a subspace of a topological space X is a subset S of X which is equipped with a natural topology induced from that of X called the subspace topology (or the relative topology, or the induced topology, or the trace topology). Topology ( Greek topos, "place" and logos, "study" is the branch of Mathematics that studies the properties of Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Topological spaces are mathematical structures that allow the formal definition of concepts such as Convergence, connectedness, and continuity.
Contents |
Given a topological space (X,τ) and a subset S of X, the subspace topology on S is defined by

That is, a subset of S is open in the subspace topology if and only if it is the intersection of S with an open set in (X,τ). ↔ In Mathematics, the intersection of two sets A and B is the set that contains all elements of A that also belong to B (or equivalently In Metric topology and related fields of Mathematics, a set U is called open if intuitively speaking starting from any point x in If S is equipped with the subspace topology then it is a topological space in its own right, and is called a subspace of (X,τ). Subsets of topological spaces are usually assumed to be equipped with the subspace topology unless otherwise stated.
If S is open, closed or dense in (X,τ) we call (S,τS) an open subspace, closed subspace or dense subspace of (X,τ), respectively. In Metric topology and related fields of Mathematics, a set U is called open if intuitively speaking starting from any point x in In Topology and related branches of Mathematics, a closed set is a set whose complement is open. In Topology and related areas of Mathematics, a Subset A of a Topological space X is called dense (in X) if
Alternatively we can define the subspace topology for a subset S of X as the coarsest topology for which the inclusion map

is continuous. In Topology and related areas of Mathematics comparison of topologies refers to the fact that two Topological structures on a given set may stand in relation In Mathematics, if A is a Subset of B, then the inclusion map (also inclusion function, or canonical injection) is the In Topology and related areas of Mathematics a continuous function is a Morphism between Topological spaces Intuitively this is a function
More generally, suppose i is an injection from a set S to a topological space X. Then the subspace topology on S is defined as the coarsest topology for which i is continuous. The open sets in this topology are precisely the ones of the form i − 1(U) for U open in X. S is then homeomorphic to its image in X (also with the subspace topology) and i is called a topological embedding. Topological equivalence redirects here see also Topological equivalence (dynamical systems. In Mathematics, an embedding (or imbedding) is one instance of some Mathematical structure contained within another instance such as a group
The subspace topology has the following characteristic property. Let Y be a subspace of X and let
be the inclusion map. Then for any topological space Z a map
is continuous if and only if the composite map
is continuous. ↔

This property is characteristic in the sense that it can be used to define the subspace topology on Y.
We list some further properties of the subspace topology. In the following let S be a subspace of X.
is continuous the restriction to S is continuous.
is continuous then
is continuous.
is a basis for S. In Mathematics, a base (or basis) B for a Topological space X with topology T is a collection of Open sets If whenever a topological space has a certain topological property we have that all of its subspaces share the same property, then we say the topological property is hereditary. In Topology and related areas of Mathematics a topological property or topological invariant is a property of a Topological space which is If only closed subspaces must share the property we call it weakly hereditary.