In point-set topology, an indecomposable continuum is a continuum that is not the union of any two of its proper subcontinua. The pseudo-arc is an example of a hereditarily indecomposable continuum. L. E. J. Brouwer discovered the first indecomposable continuum in 1910.
Indecomposable continua have historically appeared as counterexamples to various conjectures, and because of this they are often viewed as pathological objects. However, they can occur in applications, such as attractors in dynamical systems.
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