Topologies Defined by Binary Relations

The importance of topology as a tool in preference theory is what motivates this study in which we characterize topologies induced by binary relations and present topological versions of two classical preference representation theorems. We then use our characterizations to construct examples of topologies that are not induced by binary relations. We also present examples that illustrate our topological preference representation results. The preference literature contains characterizations of order topologies, that is, topologies induced by total preorders, but ours are the first characterizations of topologies induced by binary relations that are not neccesarily total preorders.