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I understand most definitions in topology using the closure operator, as it's most intuitive to me. To understand compactness, I used the definition of "set is compact iff any subset of its power set has the property that if the intersection of any two elements is nonempty then any arbitrary intersection is nonempty".

My question is - what are some definitions which are equivalent to the axioms of countability, as listed by wikipedia?

The more definitions, especially those that lend themselves to intuition well (such as those regarding closure, convergence of closures and cardinality), the better.

Thanks in advance!

JohnShn
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Your definition of compactness is wrong: a space is compact if any family of closed subsets has the property that if the intersection of any finite subfamily is non-empty, then the whole intersection is non-empty. The finite and closed (not any, as you suggest by subset of its powerset) part are essential: a simple example : take all subsets of $[0,1]$ (that contain a measurable set) of Lebesgue measure at least $\frac34$: any two of them must intersect, but their total intersection is empty; and this while $[0,1]$ is actually compact.

Another closure-like characterisation of compactness: recall that a closure point $x$ of a set $A$ is a point such that every open neighbourhood of $x$ intersects $A$. A strengthening is a point of total accumulation of an infinite set $A$: $x$ is called a point of total accumulation of $A$ when every open neighbourhood of $x$ intersects $A$ in a set as large as $A$ itself, i.e. $$\forall O \text{ open }: x \in O \implies |O \cap A| = |A|$$ where $|B|$ denotes the cardinality of a set $B$.

Theorem: A space $X$ is compact iff every infinite subset $A$ of $X$ has a point of total accumulation in $X$.

This is a closure-like property that might give you another way to think about compactness.

Separability is just that there exists a countable set $D$ such that $\overline{D} =X$.

First-countability does not really have a closure-like reformulation that I can think of. Neither does second-countability or $\sigma$-compactness. For linearly-Lindelöfness there is a reformulation in terms of special closure points as well, but it's more technical, but not for Lindelöf.

For Lindelöf we do have the analogon of the finite intersection property formulation:

$X$ is Lindelöf iff every family of closed subsets of $X$ that has the countable intersection property, has non-empty intersection.

Henno Brandsma
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  • Another example for the incorrectness of the OP's def'n of compactness is the space $[0,1]$ and the family ${(0,1/n): n\in \Bbb Z^+}$. – DanielWainfleet Nov 12 '18 at 14:41
  • The incorrect def'n of compactness provoked me: If a set has at least $3$ members $a,b,c$ and if $F={{a,b},{b,c},{c,a}}$ then the intersection of any $2$ members of $F$ is not empty but $\cap F$ is empty.:) – DanielWainfleet Nov 12 '18 at 14:59