Abstract. Topologies τ 1 and τ 2 on a set X are called T 1 -complementary if τ 1 ∩ τ 2 = {X \ F : F ⊆ X is finite} ∪ {∅} and τ 1 ∪ τ 2 is a subbase for the discrete topology on X.We provide an example of a compact Hausdorff space of size 2 c which is T 1 -complementary to itself (c denotes the cardinality of the continuum). We prove that the existence of a compact Hausdorff space of size c that is T 1 -complementary to itself is both consistent with and independent of ZFC. On the other hand, we construct in ZFC a countably compact Tikhonov space of size c which is T 1 -complementary to itself and a compact Hausdorff space of size c which is T 1 -complementary to a countably compact Tikhonov space. The last two examples have the smallest possible size: It is consistent with ZFC that c is the smallest cardinality of an infinite set admitting two Hausdorff T 1 -complementary topologies [8]. Our results provide complete solutions to Problems 160 and 161 (both posed by S. Watson [14]) from Open Problems in Topology (North-Holland, 1990).
Introduction.Recall that a topology τ on a set X is called a T 1 topology, and the pair (X, τ ) is called a T 1 -space, provided that all singletons {x} of X are τ -closed. The cofinite topology {X \ F : F ⊆ X is finite} ∪ {∅} on X is the smallest (with respect to set inclusion) T 1 topology on X.Two topologies τ 1 and τ 2 on an infinite set X are called: