Chapter 2: Basic topology
Contents
Contents
1. Finite, countable, and uncountable sets
2. Metric spaces
3. Compact sets
4. Perfect sets
5. Connected sets
1. Finite, countable, and uncountable sets
The theorem shows that, roughly speaking, countable sets represent the ``smallest" infinity: No uncountable set can be a subset of a countable set.
In fact, even the set of all algebraic numbers is countable.
2. Metric spaces
- d(p,q)>0 if p\neq q; d(p,p)=0;
- d(p,q)=d(q,p);
- d(p,q)\leqslant d(p,r)+d(r,q), for any r\in X.
Any function with these three properties is called a distance function, or a metric.
E is perfect if E is closed and if every point of E is a limit point of E.
For any collection \{F_\alpha\} of closed sets, \bigcap _ \alpha F_\alpha is closed. For any finite collection F_1,\dots,F_n of closed sets, \bigcup_{i=1}^n F_i is closed.
- \bar{E} is closed,
- E=\bar{E} if and only if E is closed,
- \bar{E} \subset F for every closed set F \subset X such that E \subset F.
By (1) and (3), E is the smallest closed subset of X that contains E.
Suppose E \subset Y \subset X, where X is a metric space. To say that E is an open subset of X means that to each point p \in E there is associated a positive number r such that the conditions d(p, q)<r, q \in X imply that q \in E. But we have already observed that Y is also a metric space, so that our definitions may equally well be made within Y. To be quite explicit, let us say that E is open relative to Y if to each p \in E there is associated an r > 0 such that q \in E whenever d(p, q)<r and q \in Y. A set may be open relative to Y without being an open subset of X. However, there is a simple relation between these concepts, which we now state.
3. Compact sets
The notion of compactness is of great importance in analysis, especially in connection with continuity.
It is clear that every finite set is compact. The existence of a large class of infinite compact sets in \mathbb R^k will follow from Theorem 2..
We observe that if E \subset Y \subset X, then E may be open relative to Y without being open relative to X. The property of being open thus depends on the space in which E is embedded.
Compactness, however, behaves better, as we shall now see. To formulate the next theorem, let us say, temporarily, that K is compact relative to X if the requirements of Definition def23 are met.
By virtue of this theorem we are able, in many situations, to regard compact sets as metric spaces in their own right, without paying any attention to any embedding space. In particular, although it makes little sense to talk of open spaces, or of closed spaces (every metric space X is an open subset of itself, and is a closed subset of itself), it does make sense to talk of compact metric spaces.
The equivalence of (1) and (2) in the next theorem is known as the Heine-Borel theorem.
- E is closed and bounded.
- E is compact.
- Every infinite subset of E has a limit point in E.
We should remark, at this point, that (2) and (3) are equivalent in any metric space but that (1) does not, in general, imply (2) and (3).
Proof. Theorem theorem233. Suppose F \subset K \subset X, F is closed (relative to X), and K is compact. Let \{V_\alpha\} be an open cover of F. If F^c is adjoined to \{V_\alpha\}, we obtain an open cover \Omega of K. Since K is compact, there is a finite subcollection \Phi of \Omega which covers K, and hence F. If F^c is a member of \Phi, we may remove it from \Phi and still retain an open cover of F. We have thus shown that a finite subcollection of \{V_\alpha\} covers F.
Theorem theorem234. Fix a member K_1 of \{K_\alpha\} and put G_\alpha=K_\alpha^c. Assume that no point of K_1 belongs to every K_\alpha. Then the sets G_\alpha form an open cover of K_1; and since K_1 is compact, there are finitely many indices \alpha_1,\dots,\alpha_n such that K_1 \subset G_{\alpha_1}\cup\dots\cup G_{\alpha_n}. But this means that K_1\cap K_{\alpha_1}\cap\dots\cap K_{\alpha_n} is empty, in contradiction to our hypothesis.
Theorem theorem235. If no point of K were a limit point of E, then each q \in K would have a neighborhood V_q which contains at most one point of E (namely, q, if q \in E). It is clear that no finite subcollection of \{V_q\} can cover E; and the same is true of K, since E \subset K. This contradicts the compactness of K.
Theorem theorem239. If (1) holds, then E \subset I for some k-cell I, and (2) follows from Theorems theorem238 and theorem233. Theorem theorem235 shows that (2) implies (3). It remains to be shown that (3) implies (1). If E is not bounded, then E contains points \mathbf{x}_n with |\mathbf{x}_n|>n. \{\mathbf{x}_n\} is infinite and clearly has no limit point in \mathbb{R}^k, hence has none in E. Thus (3) implies that E is bounded. If E is not closed, then there is a point \mathbf{x}_0 \in \mathbb{R}^k which is a limit point of E but not a point of E. For n = 1, 2, 3, \dots, there are points \mathbf{x}_n \in E such that |\mathbf{x}_n-\mathbf{x}_0|<1/n. Let S be the set of these points \mathbf{x}_n. Then S is infinite, S has \mathbf{x}_0 as a limit point, and S has no other limit point in \mathbb{R}^k. For if \mathbf{y}\in\mathbb{R}^k,\, \mathbf{y}\neq\mathbf{x}_0, then |\mathbf{x}_n-\mathbf{y}|\geqslant|\mathbf{x}_0-\mathbf{y}|-|\mathbf{x}_n-\mathbf{x}_0|\geqslant|\mathbf{x}_0-\mathbf{y}|-1/n \geqslant\frac{1}{2}|\mathbf{x}_0-\mathbf{y}| for large n; this shows that \mathbf{y} is not a limit point of S. Thus S has no limit point in E, in contradiction to (3); hence E must be closed if (3) holds.
Theorem theorem2310. Being bounded, the set E is a subset of a k-cell I \subset \mathbb{R}^k. By Theorem theorem238, I is compact, and so E has a limit point in I, by Theorem theorem235.
Proof. Since P has limit points, P must be infinite. Suppose P is countable, and denote the points of P by \mathbf{x}_1 , \mathbf{x}_2 , \mathbf{x}_3 , \dots. We shall construct a sequence \{V_n\} of neighborhoods, as follows.
Let V_1 be any neighborhood of \mathbf{x} _ 1. If V_1 consists of all \mathbf{y}\in\mathbb{R}^k such that |\mathbf{y}-\mathbf{x} _ 1|<r, the closure \bar V_1 of V_1 is the set of all \mathbf{y} \in \mathbb{R}^k such that |\mathbf{y}-\mathbf{x} _ 1| \leqslant r. Suppose V_n has been constructed, so that V_n \cap P is not empty. Since every point of P is a limit point of P, there is a neighbor hood V_{n + 1} such that (i) \bar V_{n+1}\subset V_n, (ii) \mathbf{x} _ n\notin\bar V_{n+1}, (iii) V_{n + 1}\cap P is not empty. By (iii), V_{n+1} satisfies our induction hypothesis, and the construction can proceed.
Put K_n = \bar V_{n}\cap P. Since \bar V_n is closed and bounded, \bar V_n is compact. Since \mathbf{x} _ n \notin K_{n+1}, no point of P lies in \bigcap_{n=1}^\infty K_n. Since K_n \subset P, this implies that \bigcap_{n=1}^\infty K_n is empty. But each K_n is nonempty, by (iii), and K_n \supset K_{n+1}, by (i); this contradicts the Corollary tuilun232.
{The Cantor set} One of the most interesting properties of the Cantor set is that it provides us with an example of an uncountable set of measure zero.
5. Connected sets
A set E \subset X is said to be connected if E is not a union of two nonempty separated sets.
The connected subsets of the line have a particularly simple structure:
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