Let be a topological space and an equivalence relation on . Define the quotient map with . Equip this space with the quotient topology:
By this definition, is continuous and surjective.
Now suppose and are topological spaces with a relation on . Let and s.t. . Then we can find s.t. .
If is continuous, so is
If is open, so is
Proof
Let be open in . Then is open in . Now is open, so by definition is open.
Let be open in . Then is open so is open i.e. is open. But, as is surjective, we have , hence is open.
Corollary
If is surjective, continuous and open and , then is a homeomorphism.