How to find finite topological spaces with given quotient-spaces

Abstract

Our main problem is to find finite topological spaces to within homeomorphism, given (also to within homeomorphism) the quotient-spaces obtained by identifying one point of the space with each one of the other points. In a previous version of this paper, our aim was to reconstruct a topological space from its quotient-spaces; but a reconstruction is not always possible either in the sense that several non-homeomorphic topological spaces yield the same quotient-spaces, or in the sense that no topological space yields an arbitrarily given family of quotient-spaces. In this version of the paper we present an algorithm that detects, and deals with, all these situations.