1. Introduction
In topology and its applications, the concept of an open set is fundamental. Many researchers have defined classes of open sets, (see [
1,
2,
3,
4,
5]); through them, new definitions of compactness and continuity have been found, see [
3,
6]. From this point of view, I have defined a new class of open set, namely a 
-open set, for a topological space as follows: an open subset 
 of a topological space 
 is called a 
-open set if 
 is a countable set, and, through it, created new concepts of the separation axioms, compactness, and continuity. Undoubtedly, many classic topological concepts, such as the different classes of open sets, have been used in soft topology, which has achieved many impressive and valuable results, for example, S. Al-Ghour [
7] used the notion of the 
-open set [
8] on soft topology. In 2013, B. Chen [
9] provided the idea of soft semi-open sets inspired by the class of semi-open sets [
3]. In [
1,
2,
6,
9,
10], many researchers utilized the notions of open, pre-open [
4], 
b-open [
11], 
-open [
12], 
-open [
13], somewhere dense sets [
14], and others to obtain new notions of soft topology.
The motivations for writing this paper are, firstly, to study a new class of open sets in topological spaces, which is an active path of research; secondly, to introduce a new framework to contribute in the near future to produce soft topological concepts, such as soft operators and soft continuity, which are inspired by classical topologies. Certainly, the researchers can explore other notions like covering properties and separation axioms of the proposed class of -open and -closed sets; and finally, it plays a crucial role in the development of modern concepts such as soft and fuzzy topology.
The arrangement of this article is as follows: In 
Section 2, we define a class of 
-open and 
-closed sets and establish their master properties. In 
Section 3, we study the concepts of 
-regular, 
-normal, 
–
 for 
, 
-compact, and 
-compact spaces via 
-open sets, and the theorems based on them are discussed with blue counterexamples. The concepts of 
-continuous, 
-continuous, 
-homeomorphism, and 
-homeomorphism functions via 
-open sets are introduced and probed in 
Section 4. In addition, we review some of their important properties with 
-compact and 
-compact space, and many examples are given to explain the concepts lucidly. Finally, some conclusions and the possible upcoming works are given in 
Section 5.
Throughout this paper, let 
 be a topological space and let 
 be a subset of 
. We denote the complement of 
 in 
 by 
, the interior of 
 in 
 by 
, and the closure of 
 in 
 by 
. Also, we denote the set of positive integer numbers by 
, the set of integer numbers by 
, the set of rational numbers by 
, the set of irrational numbers by 
, the set of real numbers by 
 and the usual topology in 
 by 
 [
15]. Unless or otherwise mentioned, 
 stands for the topological space 
. We do not assume 
 in the definition of compactness. A 
 space is regular and a 
 space, where a 
 space is also normal and a 
 space. A subset 
 of space 
 is said to be regularly-open and also called open domain if it is the interior of its own closure [
16]. A subset 
 is said to be regularly-closed and also called closed domain if it is the closure of its own interior or if its complement is an open domain.
  2. Main Properties of -Openness and -Closedness
This part presents the definitions of -open and -closed sets, and the theorems and properties based on them are discussed with counterexamples.
Definition 1. An open subset  of a topological space  is called -open set if  is a countable set. That is,  is an open set and the frontier of  is a countable set.
 Definition 2. A closed subset  of a topological space  is called -closed set if  is a countable set. That is,  is a closed set and the frontier of  is a countable set.
 We denoted for the collection of all -open (resp., -closed) subsets of a topological space  by  (resp., ).
Theorem 1. The complement of any -open (resp., -closed) subset of a topological space  is a -closed (resp., -open) set.
 Proof.  Let  be any -open subset of a topological space . Then  is closed and  is countable, because  is -open. Therefore,  is a -closed set. On the other hand, suppose that  be any -closed subset of a topological space . Then  is open and  is countable because  is -closed. Therefore,  is a -open set.  □
 Recall that an open (resp., closed) subset 
 of a topological space 
 is called an 
-open (resp., 
-closed) set if 
 (resp., 
) is a finite set [
17].
Obviously, from the definitions, it is clear that any -open (resp., -closed) subset of a topological space  is a -open (resp., -closed) set. However, the converse always is not true. For example, the subset  is a -open subset of the usual topological space , which is not -open. Also, by Theorem 1, any complement of the -open set is -closed, then  is a -closed subset of the usual topological space , which is not -closed because  is not finite. It is clear by the definitions that, any clopen (closed-and-open) subset of a topological space  is a -clopen set. Also, any countable closed set is -closed. However, any countable open set may not be -open. For example,  with a particular point topology at . We have that  is a countable open set, but  is an uncountable set.
In , any open interval is a -open set. Also, any closed interval is a -closed set. It is clear by Definitions 1 and 2 that every -open and -closed sets are open and closed sets, respectively. However, the converse always is not true. Here is an example of an open (resp., closed) set which is not -open (resp., -closed).
Example 1. Let  be the excluded set topological space on  by . Then  is open in . But  is an uncountable set. Hence,  is not a -open set. Also,  is an example of a closed set which is not a -closed set.
 There is an example of a -open (resp., -closed) set which is not an open (resp., closed) domain set.
Example 2. Let  be a -open subset in . However,  is not an open domain. Moreover,  is a -closed set, but  is not a closed domain.
 In general, -open (resp., -closed) sets and open (resp., closed) domain sets are not comparable as shown by the following example.
Example 3. By Example 1, let , then  is an open domain. However,  is an uncountable set, where  is no longer a -open set. Moreover, let , then  is a closed domain. However,  is an uncountable set, where  is no longer a -closed set.
 From the definitions of open, closed, -open, and -closed sets, the following diagram is obtained:
None of the above implications are reversible.
Theorem 2. Finite unions of -open sets is -open.
 Proof.  Suppose that 
 be a 
-open set for all 
. Then 
 is an open set and 
 is countable for all 
i. Since 
 is open, then we need to show the other condition of the 
-open set. Now, we have,
        
Since the finite union of countable sets is countable, then 
 is countable. Therefore, 
 is 
-open.      □
 In the above Theorem, a countable union of -open sets is -open if a countable union of closure sets equals the closure of a countable union of sets. In general, this is not true for infinite cases as shown in the following example:
Example 4. Let  be a family of non-empty pairwise disjoint spaces, where I is an uncountable index set. Let  be a particular point topology on  at . Let the set  be a topology on the disjoint union . We call  the topological sum of the . For all , pick , where  for i and  for all  in I; hence,  is open in X and  is finite; thus,  is -open in X for all . However,  is uncountable. Therefore,  is not -open in .
 Corollary 1. Finite intersections of -closed sets is -closed.
 Proof.  Obvious by Theorems 1 and 2 and by Morgan’s Laws.  □
 Theorem 3. Finite union of -closed sets is -closed.
 Proof.  Suppose that  be a -closed set for all , then  is a closed set and  is a countable set for all i. Since  is closed, then we need to show the other condition of the -closed set.
Let  be arbitrary. Since , then there exists  such that  and  for all . Then , then . The claim is proven.
Since the finite union of countable sets is countable, then,  is a countable set. Therefore,  is -closed.  □
 By Theorems 1 and 3 and by Morgan’s Laws, we have the following Corollary:
Corollary 2. Finite intersections of -open sets is -open.
   3. –-Spaces and -Compact Spaces
This part provides the definitions of -regular space, -normal space, –-space for , -compact space, and -compact space via -open sets and investigates their main properties.
Definition 3. Let  be a topological space. Then
- (i) 
  is called a -regular space if and only if for each closed subset  and each point , there exist disjoint -open sets  and  such that  and .
- (i) 
  is called a -normal space if and only if for each pair of closed disjoint subsets  and  of , there exist disjoint -open sets  and  such that  and .
 Obviously, from the definitions, any -regular space is regular and any -normal space is normal. However, the converse may not be true as shown by the following two examples.
Example 5 (The Niemytzki Plane [
15])
. Let , the upper half plane with the -axis. Let , i.e., the -axis. Let . For every  and , let  be the set of all points of  inside the circle of radius r tangent to  at  and let  for . For every  and , let  be the set of all points of  inside the circle of radius r and centered at  and let  for . The Niemytzki Plane is regular. Let  be a closed set, as  cannot be separated by two disjoint -open sets because the smallest -open set containing  is . Hence, the Niemytzki Plane is not a -regular space. Example 6. Consider , where  is the usual Topology on  [15]. Hence,  is a normal space. However,  and  are two disjoint closed sets which cannot be separated by two disjoint -open sets. Therefore,  is a normal space, but is not a -normal space.  Definition 4. Let  be a topology space, where we say that  is a –-space if and only if, given , , then there is either a -open set containing  but not , or a -open set containing  but not .
 Definition 5. Let  be a topology space, where we say that  is a –-space if and only if, given , , then there is two -open subsets  and  of  such that ,  and , .
 Definition 6. Let  be a topology space, where we say that  is a –-space “-Hausdorff space” if and only if, given , , then there is two disjoint -open subsets  and  of , such that  and .
 Definition 7. The space  is called a –-space if and only if it is a –-space and -regular. Moreover, the space  is called a –-space if and only if it is a –-space and -normal.
 It is clear from the definitions that any –-space is a -space, for . But, the converse may not be true as shown by the following examples.
Example 7. From Example 5, the Niemytzki Plane is a -space, but it is not a –-space.
 Theorem 4. Every –-space is a –-space.
 Proof.  Let  be a –-space. Then  is -normal and a –-space. Suppose that F is any closed subset of X and x be any element of X with . Since any –-space is a -space, then  is a -space; hence,  is closed. Set F and  are closed and disjoint, and by the -normality of  there exists two disjoint C-open sets U and V containing F and  respectively. Therefore,  is a –-space.  □
 From the previous Theorems and Examples, the following diagram is obtained:
None of the above implications are reversible.
Definition 8. Let  be a topological space, then  is -compact (resp., -compact) if and only if any open (resp., -open) cover of  has a finite subcover of -open (resp., open) sets.
 Theorem 5. Any -compact space is compact.
 Proof.  Since any -open set is open, then from the definitions, any -compact space is compact.  □
 The converse is not always true. Here is an example of a compact space which is not -compact.
Example 8. Overlapping Interval Topology [15]. On the set , we generate a topology from sets of the form  for  and  for . Then all sets of the form  are also open. Hence,  is a compact space, since in any open covering, the two sets which include 1 and  will cover . The space  is not a -compact space because there exists , which is an open cover for  but has no finite subcover of -open sets because  and  are not -open sets, ( is not countable, and  is not a countable set).  Theorem 6. Any compact space is -compact.
 Proof.  Obviously, from the definitions, any compact space is -compact.  □
 In general, the converse is not true. Here is an example of a -compact space which is not compact.
Example 9. Consider , where  is the right order topology on  [15]. Hence,  is not a compact space. However, the family of the -open set in  is  only. Therefore,  is -compact.  From Theorems 5 and 6 and Examples 8 and 9, the following diagram is obtained:
None of the above implications are reversible.
A subset  of a space  is -compact (resp., -compact) if and only if any open (resp., -open) cover of  has a finite subcover of -open (resp., open) sets. The -compactness is not hereditary, for example:
Example 10. Let  be the included point topological space on  by 2 (see [15]). Then  is a -compact space because  is a -open finite subcover for any open cover of . However,  is an infinite discrete subspace. Hence,  with a discrete topology is not -compact.  The -compactness is hereditary with respect to a -closed subspace as shown by the following theorem.
Theorem 7. If  is -compact (resp., -compact) and  is -closed, then  is -compact (resp., -compact).
 Proof.  Let  be any open (resp., -open) cover of , where  is open (resp., -open) in  for each . Since  is -closed in , then  is -open in . However, if any -open set is open, then  is open in . Thus,  is an open (resp., -open) cover for . Since  is -compact (resp., -compact), then there exists  such that . Thus, . Therefore,  is -compact (resp., -compact).  □
 Since any -compact space is compact, then we have the following corollary:
Corollary 3. If  is -compact and  is closed, then  is compact.
 Theorem 8. A -compact (resp., -compact) subset of a -Hausdorff space is -closed.
 Proof.  Let  be a -compact (resp., -compact) subset of -Hausdorff space . If , we are done because  is closed and  is a countable set. Hence,  is -closed. Assume that . Pick an arbitrary  and . Then there are two disjoint -open subsets  and  of  such that ,  and . Let , then  is an open (resp., -open) cover of . Since  is a -compact (resp., -compact) subset of , then there exists  such that . Let , then by Corollary 2,  is a -open subset of  containing , clearly showing  does not intersect , so that ; hence,  is a -interior point of , so  is a -open subset in . Therefore,  is a -closed subset in .  □
 Theorem 9. Let  be a -compact -Hausdorff space. Then  is -regular.
 Proof.  Let  and let  be a -closed set not containing . By -Hausdorffness, for each  and , there are two disjoint -open sets  and  containing  and , respectively. Then  is a -open cover of . By Theorem 8,  is -compact; therefore, there is a -open finite subcover . However,  and  are disjoint -open sets containing  and , as required.  □
 Corollary 4. Let  be a -compact -Hausdorff space. Then  is a –-space.
 Theorem 10. Let  be a -compact -Hausdorff space. Then  is regular.
 Proof.  The same as Theorem 9.  □
 Corollary 5. Let  be a -compact -Hausdorff space. Then  is a -space.
 Theorem 11. Let  be a -compact (resp., -compact) -Hausdorff space. Then  is -normal (resp., normal).
 Proof.  The same as Theorem 9.  □
 Corollary 6. Let  be a -compact -Hausdorff space. Then  is a –-space.
 Since every -compact space is compact, the proof of the following theorem is omitted.
Theorem 12. Suppose that  is a topological space for each . The product space  is -compact if and only if  is -compact for each .
   4. -Continuous and -Continuous Functions and Other Results
This section presents the definitions of the -continuous, -continuous, -homeomorphism, and -homeomorphism function via the concept of -open sets and reviews some of their important properties with -compact and -compact spaces.
Definition 9. A function  is said to be -continuous (resp., -continuous) if  is -open (resp., open) in  for any open (resp., -open) subset  in .
 Obviously, from the definitions, every -continuous function is continuous and every continuous function is -continuous. However, the converse may not be true as shown by the following two examples.
Example 11. Let  be the excluded set topological space on  by . Then the identity function  is a continuous function, which is not -continuous because  is open, and  is not -open because  is an uncountable set.
 Example 12. In Example 9,  is the right order topology on the set of all real numbers . The family of all -open sets in  is  only. Consider , where  is the finite complement topology on the set of all real numbers  [15]. Then the identity function  is a -continuous function, which is not continuous,  From the definitions of continuous, -continuous, and -continuous functions, and from Examples 11 and 12, the following diagram is obtained:
None of the above implications is reversible.
Definition 10. Let  and  be two topological spaces and . Then  is said to be a -open function if and only if for any -open subset , we have  be a open subset in . Moreover,  is said to be a -closed function if and only if for any -closed subset , we have  be a closed subset in .
 Theorem 13. Let  be a -continuous (resp., -continuous) onto function and  be -compact, then  is -compact.
 Proof.  Let  be any -open cover of . Since  is -continuous (resp., -continuous) and any -open set is open, then  is -open (resp., open) in  for each . Since , then ; that is,  is a -open cover of . Then, by the -compactness of , there exists  such that , then , then , then . Hence,  is a finite subcover of open sets for . Therefore,  is a -compact space.  □
 Corollary 7. -compactness is a topological property.
 From the previous theorem and the Diagram , we have the following corollary:
Corollary 8. - (i) 
 -continuous image of compact (resp., -compact, -compact) is compact (resp., -compact, -compact);
- (ii) 
 -continuous image of compact (resp., -compact, -compact) is compact (resp., -compact, -compact);
- (iii) 
 Continuous image of -compact is -compact.
 Theorem 14. Let  be an onto -continuous function and  be -compact, then  is compact.
 Proof.  Same proof as Theorem 13.  □
 Theorem 15. Let  be -continuous,  be -compact, and  be a –-space, then  is a -closed function.
 Proof.  Let  be a -closed subset in . Since  is -compact, then from Theorem 7,  is -compact, since the image of a -compact space is -compact under a -continuous function (see Corollary 8). Hence,  is -compact. Since every -compact subspace of a –-space is -closed (see Theorem 8), this implies that  is -closed. But, any -closed set is closed. Therefore,  is a -closed function.  □
 From Theorem 15 and Diagram (d), we have the following corollaries:
Corollary 9. Let  be -continuous,  be -compact (resp., compact), and  be a –-space, then  is a -closed function.
 Corollary 10. Let  be continuous,  be -compact, and  be a –-space, then  is a -closed function.
 Definition 11. A bijection function  is said to be -homeomorphism (resp., -homeomorphism) if and only if  and  are -continuous (resp., -continuous).
 From the definitions, every -homeomorphism function is homeomorphism and every homeomorphism function is -homeomorphism. However, the converse may not be true as shown by the following two examples.
Example 13. See Example 11.
 Example 14. Consider  is the right order topology on the set of all real numbers  and , where  is the indiscrete topology on the set of all real numbers  [15]. Then the identity function  is a -homeomorphism function, which is not continuous because the family of all -open sets in  and  are  only.  Theorem 16. Let  be a -compact topological space and let  be a -Hausdorff topological space. Then any -continuous bijection  is a -homeomorphism.
 Proof.  Let  be a -closed set. By Theorem 7,  is -compact; therefore,  is -compact by Corollary 8. By Theorem 8, we have that  is -closed, as required.  □