Topological Methods in Chemistry

Finite topological spaces have been of little concern to topologists who are primarily interested in the properties of continua. Consequently, such mathematical structures have received scant attention in the literature. A study has found, however, that finite spaces have a rich combinatorial structure, and much of this book is devoted to developing the mathematical machinery to analyze this structure. The book is in two parts: Part 1 introduces the mathematics of finite topological spaces, and part 2 describes some applications of the results of Part 1 to questions of molecular structure, specifically topological measures of molecular complexity and of bond-strength patterns in unsaturated pi-electron systems. Some preliminary results on the topological analysis of complex reaction networks are also presented.