In the mathematical field of general topology, a Dowker space is a topological space that is T4 but not countably paracompact. They are named after Clifford Hugh Dowker.
The non-trivial task of providing an example of a Dowker space (and therefore also proving their existence as mathematical objects) helped mathematicians better understand the nature and variety of topological spaces. Topological spaces are sets together with some subsets (designated as "open sets") satisfying certain properties. Topological spaces arose as generalization of the open sets of spaces studied in elementary mathematics, such as open disks in the Euclidean plane, open balls in the Euclidean space, and open intervals of the real line.
Equivalences
Dowker showed, in 1951, the following:
If X is a normal T1 space (that is, a T4 space), then the following are equivalent:
Dowker conjectured that there were no Dowker spaces, and the conjecture was not resolved until M. E. Rudin constructed one in 1971. Rudin's counterexample is a very large space (of cardinality