Problem Set 4: Solutions

Math 201A: Fall 2016

Problem 1. Let f : X → Y be a one-to-one, onto map between metric

spaces X, Y .
(a) If f is continuous and X is compact, prove that f is a homeomorphism.
Does this result remain true if X is not compact?
(b) Suppose that f is uniformly continuous and f −1 is continuous. If Y is
complete, prove that X is complete. If X is complete, does it follow that Y
is complete?
Solution
• (a) A continuous function maps compact sets to compact sets, and a
subset of a compact metric space is compact if and only if it is closed, so
f maps closed sets to closed sets, which implies that f −1 is continuous.
Hence, f is a homeomorphism.
• (b) A uniformly continuous function maps Cauchy sequences to Cauchy
sequences: Suppose (xn ) is Cauchy and yn = f (xn ). Then, given  > 0,
there exists δ > 0 such that d(a, b) < δ implies that d(f (a), f (b)) < ,
and there exists N ∈ N such that m, n > N implies that d(xm , xn ) < δ.
Hence m, n > N implies that d(ym , yn ) < , so (yn ) is Cauchy.
• Suppose that f is uniformly continuous and Y is complete. Let (xn ) be
a Cauchy sequence in X and yn = f (xn ). Then (yn ) is Cauchy in Y ,
so there exists a subsequence (ynk ) such that ynk → y for some y ∈ Y .
Then xnk = f −1 (ynk ) → f −1 (y) = x, since f −1 is continuous, which
proves that X is compact.
• Completeness of X does not imply completeness of Y . For example, de-
fine f : R → (−π/2, π/2) by f (x) = tan−1 x, where R and (−π/2, π/2)
are equipped with their standard metric. Then f is uniformly contin-
uous, since 0 < f 0 (x) ≤ 1, and f −1 is continuous, but R is complete
while (−π/2, π/2) is not.
Remark. The last example shows that completeness is not a topological
property, since it need not be preserved by homeomorphisms. To make sense
of completeness in topological spaces, one has to introduce an additional
uniform structure on the space.

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Problem 2. Consider the space of continuously differentiable functions,

C 1 ([0, 1]) = {f : [0, 1] → R | f , f 0 are continuous} ,

with the C 1 -norm,

kf kC 1 = sup |f (x)| + sup |f 0 (x)|.

0≤x≤1 0≤x≤1

Prove that C 1 ([0, 1]) is a Banach space.

Solution

• It is immediate to verify that C 1 is a normed linear space, so the only

nontrivial property to check is its completeness.

• Suppose that (fn ) is a Cauchy sequence in C 1 . Then (fn ) and (fn0 )

are Cauchy sequences in C, so by the completeness of C, there exist
f, g ∈ C such that fn → f and fn0 → g uniformly.

• We claim that f ∈ C 1 and g = f 0 , in which case fn → f in C 1 , so C 1

is complete.

• By the fundamental theorem of calculus,

Z x
fn (x) = fn (0) + fn0 (t) dt
0

for every n ∈ N. Taking the limit n → ∞, and using the fact that we
can exchange uniform limits with the Riemann integral, we get that
Z x
f (x) = f (0) + g(t) dt.
0

The fundamental theorem of calculus then implies that f ∈ C 1 and

f 0 = g, which proves the result.

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Problem 3. (a) Suppose that f, g ∈ C([a, b]). Prove the Cauchy-Schwarz
inequality:
Z b  Z b 1/2 Z b 1/2
  2 2

 f (x)g(x) dx ≤
 |f (x)| dx |g(x)| dx .
a a a

(b) Let
 Z 1 
1 0 2
F= f ∈ C ([0, 1]) : f (0) = f (1) = 0, f (x) dx ≤ 1 .
0

Prove that F is precompact in (C([0, 1]), k · k∞ ).

Solution

• (a) If r, s ≥ 0, then r2 − 2rs + s2 = (r − s)2 ≥ 0, so

1 2
r + s2 .


rs ≤
2

• Let
Z b 1/2 Z b 1/2
2 2
kf k = |f (x)| dx , kgk = |g(x)| dx .
a a

Then, writing r = f (x)/kf k and s = g(x)/kgk, we get that

1 f (x)2 g(x)2
 
f (x)g(x)
≤ + .
kf k kgk 2 kf k2 kgk2

Integration of this inequality with respect to x yields

Z b
1
f (x)g(x) dx ≤ 1,
kf k kgk a

which proves the result.

• (b) For x, y ∈ [0, 1], we have

y
Z 
0
 
|f (x) − f (y)| =  1 · f (t) dt .
x

3
 If f ∈ F, then by using the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality in (a), we get
that
Z y  Z y 1/2 Z y 1/2
0 0
  2

 1 · f (t) dt ≤
 1 dx |f (x)| dx ≤ |x − y|1/2 ,
x x x

so

|f (x) − f (y)| ≤ |x − y|1/2 for all x, y ∈ [0, 1] and all f ∈ F.

It follows that F is uniformly equicontinuous (given  > 0, take δ = 2 ).

• In particular, if y = 0 in the previous inequality, then f (y) = 0, and

we get that

|f (x)| ≤ |x|1/2 ≤ 1 for all x ∈ [0, 1] and all f ∈ F,

which shows that F is uniformly bounded. Hence, the Arzelà-Ascoli

theorem implies that F is precompact in C([0, 1]).

Remark. Let 0 < α ≤ 1. If a function f : [a, b] → R satisfies

|f (x) − f (y)| ≤ C|x − y|α for all x, y ∈ [a, b]

for some constant C ≥ 0, then f is said to be Hölder continuous on [a, b]

with exponent α. If α = 1, then f is Lipschitz continuous. The argument
in (b) shows that if a function f : [a, b] → R has square-integrable (weak)
derivative, then f is Hölder continuous with exponent 1/2. This result is a
simple example of Morrey’s inequality, which is a basic Sobolev embedding
theorem.

4
Problem 4. (a) If f : R → R is continuous, show that
Z x+h
1
f (t) dt → f (x) as h → 0.
h x

(b) Given f ∈ C([0, 1]), extend f to a function f˜ : R → R by


f (1)
 if x > 1
f˜(x) = f (x) if 0 ≤ x ≤ 1

f (0) if x < 0


Define fh : [0, 1] → R for h ∈ R by

Z x+h
1
fh (x) = f˜(t) dt.
h x

Show that fh ∈ C 1 ([0, 1]). What is fh0 ?

(c) Show that fh → f uniformly as h → 0, meaning that C 1 ([0, 1]) is dense
in (C([0, 1]), k · k∞ ).

Solution
1
R x+h
• (a) Using the fact that c = h x
c dt to bring f (x) inside the integral,
we have
 Z x+h 
1 
|fh (x) − f (x)| = 
 (f (t) − f (x)) dt
h
 Zx x+h 
1 
≤  |f (t) − f (x)| dt .
h x

Since f is continuous at x, there exists δ > 0 such that |f (t)−f (x)| < 
for |t − x| < δ, and then |h| < δ implies that |fh (x) − f (x)| < , which
shows that fh (x) → f (x) as h → 0.

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• Using the result in (a), we have
 
0 fh (x + ) − fh (x)
fh (x) = lim
→0 
Z x+h+ Z x+h 
1 ˜ ˜
= lim f (t) dt − f (t) dt
→0 h x+ x
 Z x+h+ Z x+ 
1 1 1
= lim f˜(t) dt − f˜(t) dt
h →0  x+h  x
1 ˜ 
= f (x + h) − f˜(x) .
h
Alternatively, you can use the fundamental theorem of calculus.

• (c) Since f˜ is continuous, it is uniformly continuous on [−1, 2]. Given

 > 0, choose 0 < δ ≤ 1 such that |f˜(x) − f˜(y)| <  for all x, y ∈ [−1, 2]
such that |x − y| < δ. Then the same argument as in (a) shows that
|fh (x) − f (x)| <  for all x ∈ [0, 1] when |h| < δ, which proves that
fh → f uniformly as h → 0.

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Problem 5. Let X be a metric space and let B(X) denote the normed linear
space of all bounded (but not necessarily continuous) functions f : X → R
with the sup-norm
kf k = sup |f (x)|.
x∈X

Fix x0 ∈ X, and for each a ∈ X define φa : X → R by

φa (x) = d(x, a) − d(x, x0 ).

Finally, define Φ : X → B(X) by Φ(a) = φa .

(a) Show that B(X) is complete.
(b) Show that Φ is an isometric embedding of X into B(X).
(c) Use this result to show that every metric space X has a completion.

Solution

• (a) See Theorem 17 in the notes on continuous functions.

• (b) Suppose that a, b ∈ X. Then

d (Φ(a), Φ(b)) = sup |φa (x) − φb (x)|

x∈X
= sup |d(x, a) − d(x, b)| .
x∈X

By the reverse triangle inequality, |d(x, a) − d(x, b)| ≤ d(a, b), with
equality when x = a, b, so d (Φ(a), Φ(b)) = d(a, b), meaning that Φ is
an isometric embedding.

• (c) Let X̃ = Φ(X) be the closure of the image of X under Φ in B(X).

Then Φ(X) is dense in X̃, and X̃ is complete because it is a closed
subspace of a complete spaces. Thus, X̃ is the completion of X, which
is unique up to an isometric isomorphism.

7
Problem 6. Suppose that A ⊂ X is a dense subset of a metric space X and
f : A → Y is a uniformly continuous function into a complete metric space
˜
 that there is a unique continuous extension f : X → Y of f , such
Y . Prove
that f˜ = f .

A

Solution
• For any x ∈ X, there exists a sequence (xn ) in A such that xn → x.
Let yn = f (xn ). Since (xn ) is convergent, it is Cauchy, and since f is
uniformly continuous, (yn ) is Cauchy. Hence, yn → y for some y ∈ Y ,
since Y is complete. We then define f˜(x) = y.
• The value f˜(x) is well-defined. Suppose that (xn ) and (x0n ) are se-
quences in A that converge to x ∈ X. Let yn = f (xn ) and yn0 = f (x0n ).
Then d(xn , x0n ) → 0 as n → ∞, so the uniform continuity of f implies
that d(yn , yn0 ) → 0, and therefore lim yn = lim yn0 .
• If x ∈ A, then we can use the sequence (x) with xn = x for every n ∈ N,
so f˜(x) = f (x), and f˜ is an extension of f .
• Finally, we show that f˜ is uniformly continuous. Let  > 0. By the
uniform continuity of f , there exists δ > 0 such that

d (f (a), f (a0 )) < for all a, a0 ∈ A with d(a, a0 ) < δ.
3
If x, x0 ∈ X, then there exist a, a0 ∈ A with
δ   
d(x, a) < , d f˜(x), f (a) < ,
3 3
δ   
d(x0 , a0 ) < , d f˜(x0 ), f (a0 ) < .
3 3
0
It follows that if d(x, x ) < δ/3, then
d(a, a0 ) ≤ d(a, x) + d(x, x0 ) + d(x0 , a0 ) < δ,
and
     
˜ ˜ 0 ˜ 0 0 ˜ 0
d f (x), f (x ) ≤ d f (x), f (a) + d (f (a), f (a )) + d f (a ), f (x )
<

which shows that f˜ : X → Y is uniformly continuous.