Eilenberg-Steenrod homology and cohomology theories for Čech's closure spaces

Abstract

We generalize some of the fundamental results of algebraic topology from topological spaces to Čech's closure spaces, also known as pretopological spaces. Using simplicial sets and cubical sets with connections, we define three distinct singular (relative) simplicial and six distinct singular (relative) cubical (co)homology groups of closure spaces. Using acyclic models we show that the three simplicial groups have isomorphic cubical analogues among the six cubical groups. Thus, we obtain a total of six distinct singular (co)homology groups of closure spaces. Each of these is shown to have a compatible homotopy theory that depends on the choice of a product operation and an interval object. We give axioms for an Eilenberg-Steenrod (co)homology theory with respect to a product operation and an interval object. We verify these axioms for three of our six (co)homology groups. For the other three, we verify all of the axioms except excision, which remains open for future work. We also show the existence of long exact sequences of (co)homology groups coming from Künneth theorems and short exact (co)chain complex sequences of pairs of closure spaces.