A Euler-Poincaré characteristic for the open set lattices of finite topologies

Let $\text{T}$ be a finite topology. If P and Q are open sets of $\text{T}$ (Q may be the null set) then P is a minimal cover of Q provided Q ? P and there does not exist any open set R of $\text{T}$ such that Q ? R ? P. A subcollection $\text{D}$ of the open sets of $\text{T}$ is termed an i-discrete collection of $\text{T}$ provided $\text{D}$ contains every open O ∈ $\text{T}$ with the property that ? $\text{D}$ ? O ? ? $\text{D}$, $\text{D}$ contains exactly i minimal covers of ? $\text{D}$, and provided ?$\text{D}$ = ?{O | O ∈ $\text{D}$ and O is a minimal cover of ? $\text{D}$}. A single open set is a O-discrete collection. The number of distinct i-discrete collections of $\text{T}$ is denoted by p($\text{T}$, i). If there does not exist any i-discrete collection then p($\text{T}$,i) = 0, and this happens trivially for the case when i is greater than the number of points on which $\text{T}$ is defined. The object of this article is to establish the theorem: For any finite topology $\text{T}$, the quantity E($\text{T}$) = Σ_{i = 0}^∞ (?1)ⁱp($\text{T}$, i) = 1.