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COMPACTNESS MSMG103 (PM), Pages 4-7
COMPACTNESS MSMG103 (PM), Pages 4-7
COMPACTNESS MSMG103 (PM), Pages 4-7
Example 2:
(a) Any finite set in any topological space is compact.
𝑌 = 𝑋 ∩ 𝑌 = [(𝑋 − 𝐺𝛼 0 ) ∩ 𝑌] ∪ [𝐺𝛼 0 ∩ 𝑌] ⊂ ⋃ 𝑉𝛼 𝑖 .
𝑖=0
Since {𝑉𝛼 0 , 𝑉𝛼 1 , 𝑉𝛼 2 , … , 𝑉𝛼 𝑛 } is a finite subcollection of 𝒱 and also covers𝑌,
so it is a finite sub-cover of 𝒱 for 𝑌 in (𝑌, 𝜏𝑌 ). Hence (𝑌, 𝜏𝑌 ) is compact.
• From Example 1(b) and Example 2(b) we see that, any co-finite topological
space is compact and any subset of a co-finite topological space is also
compact.
5
a finite subcollection of 𝒢 that covers 𝐴. Hence (𝐴, 𝜏𝐴 ) is compact i.e. 𝐴 is
compact.
Exercise 1: Is every compact subset of a topological space closed? Support your
answer.
Solution: No. To show this we consider the following example.
Let 𝑋 = { 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑} and 𝜏 = { ∅, 𝑋, {𝑎}, {𝑏}, {𝑎, 𝑏}}. Then (𝑋, 𝜏) is a topological
space. Let 𝐴 = { 𝑏, 𝑐}. The 𝐴 is a compact subset of (𝑋, 𝜏) but 𝐴 is not closed in
(𝑋, 𝜏).
Theorem 4: Finite union of compact subsets of a topological space is compact.
Proof: Let (𝑋, 𝜏) be a topological space and 𝑌1 , 𝑌2 , … , 𝑌𝑚 be finitely many
𝑚
compact subsets 𝑋. Let 𝑌 = ⋃ 𝑌𝑖 and 𝒢 be a cover of 𝑌 by sets which are open
𝑖=1
in (𝑋, 𝜏). Then 𝒢 is a cover of 𝑌𝑖 for each 𝑖 = 1,2, … , 𝑚 by sets which are open in
(𝑋, 𝜏). Now for each 𝑖(1 ≤ 𝑖 ≤ 𝑚), since 𝑌𝑖 is compact, so there exists a finite
subcover 𝒢𝑖 of 𝒢 for 𝑌𝑖 . Then 𝒢1 ∪ 𝒢2 ∪ … ∪ 𝒢𝑚 is a finite sub-collection of 𝒢
covering 𝑌. Hence ( 𝑌, 𝜏𝑌 ) is compact i.e. 𝑌 is compact.
Remark 2: (i) The above result is not true for arbitrary union. ( Find Example)
(ii) The above result is not true for finite intersection. (Find Example)
Exercise 2: Give an example to show that arbitrary union of compact sets in a
topological space may not be compact.
Solution: Let us consider the topological space (ℝ, 𝜏𝑢 ), where ℝ is the set of all
1 1
real numbers and 𝜏𝑢 is the usual topology on ℝ. Let 𝐼𝑛 = [2 + , 5 − ],𝑛 ∈
𝑛 𝑛