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Topology Book
Topology Book
Davide Batic
Springer
Contents
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1
2 1 Fundamental topological concepts
\ 1 1
− , = {0} ∈
/ O.
n∈N
n n
Note that Def. 1.1 does not require that O must contain all subsets of X. Finally, the
topology O does not need to be unique.
Lemma 1.1. Let (X, O) be a topological space and B ⊂ X. Then, the following
statements are true
1. If x is an exterior point of B, then x ∈
/ B.
2. Int(B) ∩ ∂ B = 0./
B = Int(B) ∪ ∂ B.
B ∈ O ⇐⇒ Int(B) = B.
Since Vx ⊂ B for every x ∈ B and the union is taken over all x ∈ B, the above union
must contain all points of B. Hence, we conclude that
[
B= Vx .
x∈B
4 1 Fundamental topological concepts
Since Vx ∈ O for every x ∈ B, the above union is again in O by the second property
of topological space. Thus, B ∈ O. ⊓ ⊔
Note that the above theorem implies that every open set can be written as a union of
open sets.
Proof. If we show that Int(Int(B)) = Int(B), then Theorem 1.1 will imply that
Int(B) ∈ O.
1. We show the inclusion Int(Int(B)) ⊂ Int(B). Let x ∈ Int(Int(B)). Then, Int(B) is
a neighbourhood of x and by definition of neighbourhood x ∈ Int(B).
2. We prove Int(B) ⊂ Int(Int(B)). Let x ∈ Int(B) = {x ∈ X | ∃Vx ∈ O s.t. x ∈ Vx ⊂ B}.
We show that x ∈ Int(Int(B)) = {x ∈ X | ∃Nx ∈ O s.t. x ∈ Nx ⊂ Int(B)}. Since x ∈
Int(B), B is a neighbourhood of x and there exists a Vx ∈ O such that x ∈ Vx ⊂ B.
But Vx ∈ O, therefore Theorem 1.1 implies that Vx = Int(Vx ). Hence, Int(Vx ) is a
neighbourhood of x and there exists a set Nx ∈ O with x ∈ Nx ⊂ Int(Vx ). Moreover,
Lemma 1.3 implies that Int(Vx ) ⊂ Int(B). Hence, we proved the existence of a set
Nx ∈ O such that x ∈ Nx ⊂ Int(B). Thus, x ∈ Int(Int(B)). ⊓ ⊔
Proof. Theorem 1.2 ensures that Int(B) is open. Theorem 1.1 implies that Int(Int(B)) =
Int(B). Let x ∈ Int(B). Then, x ∈ Int(Int(B)) and Int(B) is a neighbourhood of x.
Hence, there exists Vx ∈ O such that x ∈ Vx ⊂ Int(B). Since x ∈ Int(B), B is also a
neighbourhood of x and x ∈ B. Thus, x ∈ Vx ⊂ Int(B) ⊂ B. Taking the union over all
x ∈ Int(B) we find
1.1 ABC of topology 5
[
Vx = Int(B) ⊂ B,
x∈Int(B)
Lemma 1.5. Let (X, O) be a topological space and I an indexing set. Further,
consider the family of closed sets G = {Cλ ⊂ X | X −Cλ ∈ O ∀ λ ∈ I}. Then,
\
Cλ is closed.
λ ∈I
Since X −C1 , X −C2 ∈ O and unions of open sets are open by the second property
of topological space, we conclude that X − (C1 ∩C2 ) ∈ O. Let n > 2 be any natural
number. Suppose that the intersection of n − 1 closed sets of G is closed. We want
to show that
n
\
Cλ is closed. (1.1)
λ =1
Since
n=1
\
C= Cλ is closed,
λ =1
and
n
\
Cλ = C ∩Cn ,
λ =1
we conclude that (1.1) is closed because intersection of two closed sets. ⊓
⊔
6 1 Fundamental topological concepts
A closed ⇐⇒ A = A.
By means of the above preliminary result we can prove that the closure of a set H
is the smallest closed set containing H. This follows from the next theorem and the
fact that H ⊂ H.
Then, H = K.
By means of open sets we defined closed sets, neighbourhoods and closures. How-
ever, all these concepts are very closely related and one can give an equivalent defi-
nition of topological space in terms of closed sets, neighbourhoods or closures.
The next definition of topological space is the original one given in 1914 by the
German mathematician Felix Hausdorff in his Grundzüge der Mengenlehre.
Finally, the most elegant definition of topological space has been introduced by
the Polish mathematician Kazimierz Kuratowski in his doctoral thesis in 1920.
2. A ⊂ A for every A ⊂ X;
3. A = A for every A ⊂ X;
4. A ∪ B = A ∪ B for all A, B ⊂ X.
Example 1.2. A given set may have many different topologies. If a set is given a
different topology, it is viewed as a different topological space. Let X be a nonempty
set. The first two examples show that we can always endow X with at least two
topologies.
1. The discrete topological space: (X, O) with O = P(X).
2. The indiscrete or trivial topological space: (X, O) with O = {X, 0}. / The trivial
topology is the smallest topology we can impose on X. We say that it is weaker
than any other topology on X, since any other topology will contain X, 0/ as well
as other subsets of X.
3. The Sierpinski topological space: X = {a, b} with O = {0, / X, {a}}. This is the
simplest topological space that is neither discrete nor trivial.
4. the real line R with the usual topology, that is R with a collection of intervals of
the form (a, b) with a < b where we also allow for a = −∞ and b = ∞. We denote
this collection by the symbol Ou .
Example 1.3. The following examples show that the property of being open or
closed is not a dual property since we can construct cases where a set is neither
open nor closed at the same time. However, the same set can become closed or
open when viewed as a subset of an appropriate subspace of the original topological
space.
1. Consider (R, Ou ).
a. [a, b] is closed in (R, Ou ) since
b. [a, b) is neither closed nor open in (R, Ou ). Clearly, it is not open because
[a, b) ∈ Ou . Moreover, it is not closed since
2. Consider (R, Ou ) and (a, b) ⊂ R with a < b. Further, let (c, b) ⊂ R with c < a
equipped with the collection of open sets
3. Consider R with the discrete topology. In this case O = P(R) and it contains
all possible subsets of R such as {a}, {a, b}, {a, b, c, · · ·}, (−∞, a), (−∞, a] and
so on. Then [a, b) is open and closed at the same time. Clearly, it is open since
[a, b) ∈ P(R). Moreover, it is also closed because
Theorem 1.4. The set of the rational numbers Q is dense in R equipped with
the usual topology.
Problems
1.3. Is it true or false that the pair (X, O) with X = {1, 2, 3} and O = {0,
/ X, {1}, {1, 2}}
is a topological space?
1.4. Construct an example of a topology on R such that the interval (0, 1) is not open
in this topology.
1.5. Show that the definitions of topological space in terms of open sets and closed
sets are equivalent.
∃ Ux ∈ O s.t. U ∩ H = {x}.
Let I be the set of all isolated points of H and Σ be the set of all limit points of H.
Show that Σ is closed and H = Σ ∪ I with Σ ∩ I = 0. / Is it true or false that if x is a
limit point of H, then x ∈ H?
1.7. Consider R with the usual topology and H = {n−1 | n ∈ N} ⊂ R. Find the limit
and isolated points of H.
1.1 ABC of topology 11
1.8. Consider R with the usual topology and H ⊂ R with H = {0} ∪ (1, 2). Find the
limit and isolated points of H.
1.9. Let (X, O) be a topological space is it true or false that if H, K ⊂ X and H 6= K,
then H 6= K?
1.10. Show that definitions 1.1, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 are all equivalent.
1.11. Consider R equipped with the usual topology and 0/ 6= H ⊂ R. Further, suppose
that H is bounded above. Show that u = sup H ∈ H. Similarly, show that if H is
bounded below, then inf H ∈ H.
1.12. Consider R with the usual topology and a subset H = (a, ∞) ⊂ R. Compute
the closure of (a, b) with a < b as a subset of R. Compute again the closure of the
same subset but this time seen as a subset of H. What do you observe?
1.15. Let (X, O) be a topological space. Is it true or false that for every i ∈ N with
i ≥ 2 and Hi ⊂ X
[ [
Hi = Hi ?
i∈N,i≥2 i∈N,i≥2
1.16. Let (X, O) be a topological space and Hi ⊂ X for every i ∈ In . Show that
[ [
Hi = Hi .
i∈In i∈In
Metric spaces offer a non trivial example of topological space. Roughly speaking a
metric space is a set of points where we can compute distances among these points.
Definition 1.7. A metric space is a pair (X, d) consisting of a non empty set
and a distance function d : X × X −→ R called metric such that
1. d(x, y) ≥ 0 ∀ x, y ∈ X and d(x, y) = 0 ⇐⇒ x = y;
2. d(x, y) = d(y, x) ∀ x, y ∈ X (symmetry);
3. d(x, y) ≤ d(x, z) + d(z, y) ∀ x, y, z ∈ X (triangular inequality).
The above properties of a metric are inspired by our everyday experience with
the concept of distance in an Euclidean three-dimensional space. The first property
mimics the fact that if we take two arbitrary points in R3 their distance will be
zero if they coincide and positive if they are distinct. The second property tells us
that the distance between two points x and y remains the same whether we measure
from x to y or vice versa. However, there are also physical theories inspired by
Noncommutative Geometry postulating that at the Planck length (10−35 cm) the
world is noncommutative in the sense that d(x, y) 6= d(y, x). The last axiom in the
definition of metric space captures the fact that the sum of the lengths of two sides of
any triangle is not less than the length of the third side. This property becomes very
useful once we introduce the topology of a metric space. Why did we introduce only
these three properties? Because experience has shown that in many proofs about
continuity of maps between Euclidean spaces only these three properties are used
and not the explicit formula for the Euclidean distance.
Example 1.5. In the list below you can find several examples of famous metric
spaces. Some of them play an important role in Functional Analysis.
1. n-dimensional Euclidan space:
s
n
X = Rn , d(x, y) = ∑ (xi − yi )2 ∀ x = (x1 , · · · , xn ), y = (y1 , · · · , yn ) ∈ Rn
i=1
7. L p -space:
Proof. We show that ℓ2 is a metric space. There are two non trivial things to be
shown, namely: the distance function is well-defined and the triangular inequality
holds.
a. We check that d(x, y) < ∞ for every x, y ∈ X. This amounts to show that the
series ∑∞ 2
n=1 (xn − yn ) is convergent. Consider the sequence of partial sums
(sN )N∈N with sN = ∑Nn=1 (xn − yn )2 . Then
N N N N N N N
∑ (xn − yn )2 = ∑ xn2 + ∑ y2n − 2 ∑ xn yn ≤ ∑ xn2 + ∑ y2n + 2 ∑ |xn ||yn |
n=1 n=1 n=1 n=1 n=1 n=1 n=1
Finally,
N
lim
N→∞
∑ (xn − yn )2 < ∞ =⇒ (sN )N∈N convergent.
n=1
we have
N N N N
∑ (xn − yn )2 ≤ ∑ (xn − zn )2 + ∑ (zn − yn )2 + 2 ∑ |xn − zn ||zn − yn |,
n=1 n=1 n=1 n=1
s s
N N N N
≤ ∑ (xn − zn ) 2
+ ∑ (zn − yn ) + 2 2
∑ (xn − zn )2 ∑ (zn − yn )2 ,
n=1 n=1 n=1 n=1
s s
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
≤ ∑ (xn − zn )2 + ∑ (zn − yn )2 + 2 ∑ (xn − zn )2 ∑ (zn − yn )2 ,
n=1 n=1 n=1 n=1
= d(x, z) + d(z, y).
after application of (1.2) on the r.h.s. of the first line. Taking the limit for
N → ∞ we obtain
N
∑ (xn − yn )2 = d(x, y) ≤ d(x, z) + d(z, y)
lim
N→∞
n=1
d p (x, y) = ∑ |xi − yi | p
i=1
defined for all x, y ∈ Rn and p ≥ 1 is a metric space. The triangle inequality can
be verified using the Hölder and Minkowsky inequalities.
10. the sequence space ℓ∞ :
ℓ∞ = {(xn )∞ ∞
n=1 | xn ∈ R ∀n ∈ N and (xn )n=1 bounded}
with
ds (x, y) = sup |xn − yn | ∀x, y ∈ ℓ∞ .
n∈N
The use of the notation εx emphasizes the fact that the choice of the radius of the
ball depends on the centre of the ball. There are situations where one should keep in
mind this aspect.
Example 1.7. Take the metric space (R, d) with d(x, y) = |x − y| for all x, y ∈ R. In
this metric space an εx -ball about the point x is an open interval since
then an εx -ball about the point x is the interior of a disc of radius εx and centre
x = (x1 , x2 ) since
q
Bεx (x) = {y ∈ R2 | d(x, y) < εx } = {y ∈ R2 | (x1 − y1 )2 + (x2 − y2 )2 < εx },
= {y ∈ R2 | (x1 − y1 )2 + (x2 − y2 )2 < εx2 }.
We have two cases. If |x1 − a1 | > |x2 − a2 |, then |x1 − a1 | < εa and hence, x1 ∈
(a1 − εa , a1 + εa ). If |x2 − a2 | > |x1 − a1 |, then |x2 − a2 | < εa and hence, x2 ∈ (a2 −
εa , a2 + εa ). In this case an εa -ball is a square of centre a = (a1 , a2 ) and sides having
length 2εa .
Example 1.9. Let us take R with the Euclidean metric d(x, y) = |x − y| defined for
all x, y ∈ R. Then, the ball of unit radius and centre one is
Consider now the subset H = [0, 1] of R and let dH be the metric induced by d on
H, that is dH (x, y) = d(x, y) for all x, y ∈ H. What is the open ball of unit radius and
centre one in the metric space (H, dH )? First of all,
BH
1 (1) = {x ∈ H | dH (1, x) < 1}.
Clearly, x = 0 ∈/ BH1 (1) since dH (1, 0) < 1 would imply 1 < 1 which is impossible.
If 0 < x < 1, then dH (1, x) < 1 implies that |1 − x| < 1 which is clearly satisfied.
Finally, if x = 1, the inequality dH (1, 1) < 1 is trivially true. Hence, we conclude
that BH
1 (1) = (0, 1].
The last three examples tell us that the shape of an open ball depends on the chosen
metric and that an open ball in R with the usual topology can differ dramatically
1.2 Metric spaces 17
from an open ball of a subset of R equipped with some induced metric. Indeed, we
discovered that B1 (1) is open with respect to the topology O(d) and that BH 1 (1)
is open with respect to the topology O(dH ) but for instance BH 1 (1) is not open
when seen as a subset of R endowed with the usual topology. We saw a similar
phenomenon when we treated topological spaces. At this point we might start to
supsect that metric spaces are indeed topological spaces. To prove this important
fact we first need to show the following preliminary results.
Lemma 1.8. Let (X, d) be a metric space and Bεx (x) ⊂ X. Then, for all y ∈
Bεx (x) there exists some δy > 0 such that Bδy (y) ⊂ Bεx (x), i.e. any open ball is
open.
Proof. Take any y ∈ Bεx (x). Let δy = εx − d(x, y) which is clearly positive. Take any
z ∈ Bδy (y) and show that z ∈ Bεx (x), that is d(z, x) < εx . Note that we have
Lemma 1.9. Let (X, d) be a metric space and A ⊂ X. Then, A is open if and
only if A can be written as a union of open balls.
2. ⇐=: let A be the union of open ball as in (1.3). Take any y ∈ A. Then, y will
belong to some open ball Bεz (z). By Lemma 1.8 we can find a δy > 0 such that
[
Bδy (y) ⊂ Bεz (z) ⊂ Bεz (z) = A
z∈A
18 1 Fundamental topological concepts
Lemma 1.10. Let (X, d) be a metric space. Then, X and 0/ are open.
Proof. By contradiction. Suppose that 0/ is not open. Then, there exists a point x ∈ 0/
such that for all εx > 0 we have Bεx (x) 6⊂ 0.
/ This would imply that that the empty set
is not empty and this is absurde. Suppose that X is not open. Then, there exists some
x ∈ X such that for all εx > 0 we have Bεx (x) 6⊂ X. This would imply that in general
Bεx (x) contains other points than points of X and this is impossible since there are
no such other points. ⊓ ⊔
LemmaT
1.11. Let (X, d) be a metric space and U1 , · · · ,Un open subsets of X.
Then, ni=1 Ui is open.
Take εx = min1≤i≤n {εi }. Then, Bεx (x) ⊂ Ui for all i = 1, 2, · · · , n and hence
n
\
Bεx (x) ⊂ Ui
i=1
as required. ⊓
⊔
Lemma 1.12. Let (X, d) be a metric space and I an indexing set. Further,
consider the family of open sets
as required. ⊓
⊔
Proof. Let (X, d) be a metric space and O(d) the collection of all open subsets of X.
Lemma 1.10 implies that X, 0/ are open. Lemma 1.12 implies that arbitrary unions
of open sets are again open while Lemma 1.11 ensures that a finite intersection of
open sets is again open. ⊓⊔
Different metrics can give rise to the same topology. If this is the case we say that
these metrics are topologically equivalent.
′
Definition 1.10. Let X be a set equipped with metrics d and d . Consider the
′ ′
topological spaces (X, O(d)) and (X, O(d )) and U ⊂ X. We say that d an d
are topologically equivalent whenever
′
U ∈ O(d) ⇐⇒ U ∈ O(d ).
We want to verify that (R2 , O(dE )) and (R2 , O(d∞ )) are topologically equivalent.
We need to check the above definition. Take any U ∈ O(d∞ )). Then, for all x ∈ U
there exists an open ball B∞ εx (x) ⊂ U. Clearly, U ∈ O(dE ) if for all x ∈ U we have
Bρx (x) ⊂ Bεx (x). From a previous example we know that Bε∞x (x) is a square with
E ∞
side 2εx . Then, BρEx (x) can be taken as the smallest disc inscribed inside the square
B∞εx (x). Take ρx = εx and we are done. We need now to show that if U ∈ O(dE )
then U ∈ O(d∞ ). Take any U ∈ O(dE ). Then, for any x ∈ U we have BρEx (x) ⊂ U.
If we can show that B∞ E
ρx (x) ⊂ Bεx (x) then we are done. Take the smallest square of
20 1 Fundamental topological concepts
The next theorem is very useful in constructing a new metric once we already have
a metric space.
This result is very important since it shows that a topological space does not need to
be a metric space and hence the concept of topological space is more general than
the concept of metric space.
Example 1.11. We want to study open balls in a metric space endowed with a dis-
crete metric. Let (X, d) be a discrete metric space. Then, for some point a ∈ X the
open ball of radius 2 and centre a is
because for x 6= a we have d(x, a) = 1 < 2 whereas for x = a we have d(x, a) = 0 < 2.
If we consider instead the open ball
it turns out that that B1 (a) = {a} because for any x 6= a we have d(x, a) = 1 which
cannot be less than one. Hence, the only admissible case is x = a since then d(x, a) =
d(a, a) = 0 < 1. A similar reasoning gives
Problems
We introduce two new topologies: the subspace topology and the product topology.
Definition 1.13. Consider (X, O) and (X0 , O|X0 ). We say that B ⊂ X0 is open
in the subspace topology of X0 if there exists an open subset W in the topology
of X such that B = W ∩ X0 .
U ∩ X0 = (0, π ) ∩ N = {1, 2, 3}
Definition 1.14. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces. The product
space
X ×Y = {(x, y) | x ∈ X and y ∈ Y }
1.3 Back to topological spaces 23
F = {Wα ⊂ X ×Y | Wα ∈ OX×Y ∀α ∈ I}
We already know that in a metric space any open set is a union of open balls where
in general infinitely many balls can be involved in the union. In a topological space
it is often convenient to have some subcollection of open sets, called a basis, having
the aforementioned property of the open balls in a metric space. We will also see
that the concept of topological basis is useful to prove continuity of a map in an
efficient way.
O = O(d) with O(d) = {U ⊂ X | U ∈ O(d)}. The set of all open balls is a basis
for O(d) since
a. Lemma 1.9 implies that every open set can be written as a union of open balls.
b. (X, d) is a metric space and since every metric space is a topological space,
we clearly have X, 0/ ∈ O(d). Since X and 0/ are open, Lemma 1.9 ensures they
can be written as a union of open balls. In particular, for any x ∈ X and ρx > 0
[
0/ = Bρx ,λ (x).
λ ∈0/
The set of all open balls does not need to form a topology because for instance
in R2 the intersection of two partially overlapping discs is not a disc.
2. The collection of open boxes forms a basis of the product topology.
Proof. Let W ∈ OX×Y . Then, there exists a neighbourhood U of x in X and a
neighbourhood V of y in Y such that U × V ⊂ W but since U and V are neigh-
bourhoods of x and y, respectively, there exist Nx ∈ OX and My ∈ Oy such that
x ∈ Nx ⊂ U and y ∈ My ⊂ V . Clearly, Nx and My are open neighbourhoods and
Nx × My ⊂ U ×V ⊂ W . Take the union over all pairs (x, y) ∈ W . We obtain
[
Nx × My = W
(x,y)∈W
q) ∈ B = {B p (q) | ρ ∈ Q+ and q ∈ Qn }
Bρe (e
such that p ∈ Bρe (eq) ⊂ U. Take any p ∈ Rn and let U be some open neighbourhood
of p. Since U belongs to the usual topology of the Euclidean space, there exists
an open ball Br (p) ⊂ U. If we show that p ∈ Bρe (e q) ⊂ Br (p) for some ρe ∈ Q+ ,
then we are done. Clearly, p ∈ Br (p). By the density of the rationals there exists
ρ ∈ Q+ such that 0 < ρ < r. Consider the ball Bρ (p). Clearly, p ∈ Bρ (p) ⊂
Br (p). The density of the rationals also implies that we can find qe ∈ Qn such
that qe ∈ Bρ /2 (p). We claim that p ∈ Bρ /2 (e q) ⊂ Br (p). First of all, p ∈ Bρ /2 (e
q)
since qe ∈ Bρ /2 (p) implies that d(p, qe) < ρ /2. We need to prove the inclusion.
Let x ∈ Bρ /2 (eq). Let us verify that x ∈ Br (p). Note that
26 1 Fundamental topological concepts
ρ ρ
d(p, x) ≤ d(p, qe) + d(e
q, x) < + =ρ <r
2 2
and this completes the proof. ⊓
⊔
Definition 1.16. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces. Further con-
sider a map f : x −→ Y . We say that f is continuous if the inverse image of an
open set in the topology OY is open in the topology OX , that is
f −1 (U) ∈ OX ∀ U ∈ OY .
We recall that the inverse image of a set is defined as f −1 (U) = {x ∈ X | f (x) ∈ U}.
Keep in mind that the above definition does not make any assertion about direct
images of open sets. We will later show that this definition of continuos map is a
generalization of the usual ε -δε definition of continuity.
Lemma 1.13. Let (X, O) be a topological space. The identity map IdX : X −→
X such that x 7−→ IdX (x) = x is continuous.
1.5 Continuous maps 27
Id−1
X (U) = {x ∈ X | IdX (x) ∈ U} = {x ∈ X | x ∈ U} = X ∩U = U
In the next result we show that the composition of continuous maps is again contin-
uous.
Lemma 1.14. Let (X, OX ), (Y, OY ) and (Z, OZ ) be topological spaces. Fur-
ther, consider the continuous maps f : X −→ Y and g : Y −→ Z. Then,
g ◦ f : X −→ Z is continuous.
Proof. We show that (g ◦ f )−1 (W ) ∈ OX for all W ∈ OZ . Note that since g and f
are continuous we have that g−1 (W ) ∈ OY for all W ∈ OZ and f −1 (U) ∈ OX for all
U ∈ OY . Hence, we can choose U = g−1 (W ) and conclude that
The next result answer the following question: under which condition any map be-
tween two topological spaces is continuous?
Proof. Consider the topological spaces (X, P(X)) and (Y, OY ). Further, consider
a map f : X −→ Y . Take any U ∈ OY . Then, f −1 (U) ⊂ X. Hence, by definition of
discrete topology f −1 (U) ∈ P(X). ⊓⊔
The next example shows that a map which is continuous with respect to a certain
topology does not need to be continuous with respect to another topology.
Example 1.14. Consider a map f : R −→ R such that f (x) = x2 for all x ∈ R.
1. Consider the usual topology Ou of the open intervals on R and interval (a, b)
with a < b. Then,
−1
√ 0/ ∈
√Ou if a < b < 0,
f (a, b) = (− b, b) ∈ O√u if a < 0 < b,
√ √ √
(− b, − a) ∪ (− a, b) ∈ Ou if 0 < a < b.
28 1 Fundamental topological concepts
O = {R, 0}
/ ∪ {(−∞, x) | x ∈ R}.
Lemma 1.16. Let (X, O) be a topological space. Then, the constant map f :
X −→ {a} ⊂ X such that f (x) = a for all x ∈ X and some a ∈ X is continuous.
Proof. Equip the set {a} with the subspace topology O|{a} = {U ∩ {a} | U ∈ OX }.
Take any set U ∩ {a} in the subspace topology. Then,
but
−1 0/ if U = 0/ or a ∈
/ U,
f (U) = {x ∈ X | f (x) ∈ U} = {x ∈ X | a ∈ U} =
X if a ∈ U.
Hence,
−1 0/ if U = 0/ or a ∈
/ U,
f (U ∩ {a}) =
X if a ∈ U.
and it belongs to O. This concludes the proof. ⊓
⊔
The concept of topological basis is very useful in order to prove continuity of maps
between topological spaces. Suppose that we have topological spaces (X, OX ) and
(Y, OY ). In the case we need to prove that a map f : X −→ Y is continuous, we can
introduce a basis B for the topology OY . If we can show that f −1 (Bi ) ∈ OX for all
Bi ∈ B where i belongs to some indexing set I, then we are done because B basis
S
implies that U = i∈I Bi for all U ∈ OY and
!
[ [
f −1 (U) = f −1 Bi = f −1 (Bi ) ∈ OX .
i∈I i∈I
Lemma 1.17. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces. Then, the map
f : X −→ Y is continuous if and only if for all U ⊂ Y closed in Y the inverse
image f −1 (U) is closed in X.
1.5 Continuous maps 29
f −1 (U) = f −1 (Y −V ) = f −1 (Y ) − f −1 (V ) = X − f −1 (V )
1. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces. Lemma 1.18 ensures that the map
f : X −→ Y is continuous if and only if for every neighbourhood U of f (x) in Y
the inverse image f −1 (U) is a neighbourhood of x in X.
2. Suppose that the above topological spaces are metrizable. Then, there exist met-
′ ′ ′
rics d and d such that OX = O(d) and OY = O(d ). Then, (X, d) and (Y, d ) are
′
metric spaces. Moreover, f will be continuous at x if for any subset U ∈ O(d )
−1 −1
containing f (x) the inverse image f (U) ∈ O(d) with x ∈ f (U). Since U is
′
open there exists an open ball Bε ( f (x)) ⊂ U. On the other hand, f −1 (U) ∈ O(d)
means that there exists an open ball Bδ (x) ⊂ f −1 (U). Hence, we can claim that
′
′
f : X −→ Y ⇐⇒ ∀ Bε ( f (x)) f −1 Bε ( f (x)) ∈ O(d).
′
In order that f −1 Bε ( f (x)) ∈ O(d) there must be an open ball Bδ (x) ∈ O(d)
′
such that Bδ (x) ⊂ f −1 Bε ( f (x)) .
Proof. Let f (x) ∈ f (N) with f (N) = { f (x) ∈ Y | x ∈ N}. We want to show that
f (x) ∈ M. If f (x) ∈ f (N), then x ∈ N but N ⊂ f −1 (M) and hence, x ∈ f −1 (M) =
{x ∈ X | f (x) ∈ M}. We conclude that f (x) ∈ M. ⊓ ⊔
This observations together with Lemma 1.19 suggest the following definition.
′
Definition 1.17. Let (X, d) and (Y, d ) be metric spaces. Then, the map f :
X −→ Y is continuous at x ∈ X if and only if
′ ′
∀ Bε ( f (x)) ∃ Bδ (x) such that f (Bδ (x)) ⊂ Bε ( f (x))
′
Note that f (Bδ (x)) ⊂ Bε ( f (x)) means that for all xe ∈ X such that xe ∈ Bδ (x), i.e.
′ ′
d(x, xe) < δ we have f (e x)) < ε . This motivates the
x) ∈ Bε ( f (x)) that is d ( f (x), f (e
following equivalent definition of continuity.
′
Definition 1.18. Let (X, d) and (Y, d ) be metric spaces. We say that f : X −→
Y is continuous at x ∈ X if
′
∀ ε > 0 ∃δε > 0 such that d ( f (e
x, f (x)) < ε whenever d(e
x, x) < δ ∀e
x ∈ X.
1.5 Continuous maps 31
′
If X = Y = R and d = d is the familiar Euclidean distance the previous definition
gives rise to the usual definition of continuity one encounters in real analysis, namely
the real function f : R −→ R is continuous at x0 ∈ R if for all ε > 0 there exists a
δε > 0 such that | f (x) − f (x0 )| < ε whenever |x − x0 | < δε for all x ∈ R.
Definition 1.19. Let (X, d) be a metric space. We say that a sequence (xn )n∈N
of points in X converges to some x ∈ X if
Lemma 1.20. A sequence (xn )n∈N of points in a metric space (X, d) converges
to x ∈ X if and only if
lim d(xn , x) = 0.
n→∞
Definition 1.20. Late A and B be sets such that A ⊂ B. The inclusion map is
defined as
i : A ⊂ B −→ B such that i(x) = x ∀ x ∈ A.
The next result turns out to be useful when studying homeomorphisms between
topological spaces.
Lemma 1.22. Let (X, OX ), (Y, OY ), and (H, O|H ) with H ⊂ X be topological
spaces. Further, consider a map g : Y −→ H and an inclusion i : H −→ X.
Then, g is continuous if and only if i ◦ g : Y −→ X is continuous.
Problems
1.25. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces. Show that the map f : X −→ Y
is continuous if and only if f −1 (B) ⊂ f −1 (B) for all B ⊂ Y .
This topology also known in the German literature under the name Bildtopologie
plays an important role in constructing the so-called quotient topology for quotient
spaces.
34 1 Fundamental topological concepts
O = {Ω ⊂ X | ∀ i ∈ I fi−1 (Ω ) ∈ Oi }
fi−1 (0)
/ = {x ∈ Xi | fi (x) ∈ 0}
/ = 0/ ∈ Oi .
Furthermore, X ⊂ X and
is open in Oi since Ω j ∈ O.
S
3. Consider a finite number of intersections of sets in O, say λ ∈In Ωλ . Then,
!
\ \
fi−1 Ωλ = fi−1 (Ωλ )
λ ∈In λ ∈In
is open in Oi since Ωλ ∈ O. ⊓
⊔
In general projection maps can be defined also in the absence of topological spaces.
In the next result we construct the product topology in such a way that the
projection maps are continuous.
Lemma 1.25. Every projection is continuous with respect to the product
topology.
Proof. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces. Consider the projections πX :
X × Y −→ X and πY : X × Y −→ Y such that (x, y) 7−→ πX (x, y) = x and (x, y) 7−→
36 1 Fundamental topological concepts
The next example clarifies the reason why the maps π ◦ f are called coordinate maps.
Example 1.15. Consider a curve in R2 , that is a vector-valued function f : [a, b] ⊂
R −→ R2 such that t ∈ [a, b] 7−→ f (t) = (x(t), y(t)) ∈ R2 . The parametric represen-
tation of such a curve is given by x = x(t) and y = y(t) with t ∈ [a, b]. For instance,
the curve representing a circle of unit radius will be x(t) = cost and y(t) = sint with
t ∈ [0, 2π ] and in this case
Note that x = x(t) and y = y(t) are the coordinate maps. We can project an arbi-
trary point (x(t), y(t)) on the circle down to the x-axis and y-axis by means of the
projections πx and πy . Hence, we have x = πx ◦ f and y = πy ◦ f .
This example suggests that f is continuous on R2 provided that the coordinate maps
x and y are continuous on [a, b]. The next theorem confirms this conjecture.
U ×V = {(x, y) ∈ X ×Y | x ∈ U ⊂ X, y ∈ V ⊂ Y },
= {(x, y) ∈ X ×Y | x ∈ U ⊂ X, y ∈ Y } ∩ {(x, y) ∈ X ×Y | x ∈ X, y ∈ V ⊂ Y },
= (U ×Y ) ∩ (X ×V )
Then,
f −1 (U ×V ) = f −1 ((U ×Y ) ∩ (X ×V )) = f −1 (U ×Y ) ∩ f −1 (X ×V ) (1.5)
Definition 1.22. Let (X, O) be a topological space and UO (x) be the collec-
tion of all neighbourhoods of x ∈ X with respect to the topology O. We say
that Bx ⊂ UO (x) is neighbourhood basis of x with respect to the topology O
if
∀ U ∈ UO (x) ∃ B ∈ Bx such that B ⊂ U.
One of the most important properties of first countable spaces is that given a subset
A a point x belongs to the closure of A if and only if there exists a sequence (xn )n∈N
in A converging to x. Moreover, first countable spaces allows a sequential character-
ization of continuous maps. A very interesting future of second-countable spaces is
that they are all separable, that is they admit a dense subset. For a detailed analysis
of the connections between first and second countable spaces we to [2].
Proof. Let (X, d) be a metric space equipped with the topology O(d). Take any
x ∈ X. We claim that Bx = {B1/n (x) | n ≥ 1 and n ∈ N} is a countable neighbourhood
basis. Let U be a neighbourhood of x. Then, there exists an open ball Br (x) ⊂ U. By
the density of the rationals we can always find a q = 1/n ∈ Q+ such that 0 < q < r.
Hence,
B1/n (x) ⊂ Br (x) ⊂ U.
Clearly, the collection of these balls is a countable set since we cans et up an injec-
tion f : Bx −→ N defined as f (B1/n (x)) = n for all n ∈ N. ⊓ ⊔
The net result shows that second-countability is a stronger condition than first-
countabilty.
2. Metric spaces are first-countable but not necessarily second-countable. Take for
instance (R, d) with the discrete metric. Open balls are
R if ε > 1,
Bε (x) =
{x} if 0 < ε ≤ 1.
References
2.1 Homeomorphisms
A ⊂ X closed ⇐⇒ X − A ∈ OX ⇐⇒ f (X − A) ∈ OY ,
⇐⇒ f (X) − f (A) ∈ OY ⇐⇒ Y − f (A) ∈ OY ,
⇐⇒ f (A) is closed
41
42 2 Homeomorphisms and topological properties
Lemma 2.1. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces. Suppose that B ⊂
Y and let B be equipped with the subspace topology. Consider the inclusion
map i : B ⊂ Y −→ B ⊂ Y . Then, the map g : X −→ B ⊂ Y is continuous if and
only if i ◦ g : X −→ Y is continuous.
Hence,
since i ◦ g is continuous. ⊓
⊔
Theorem 2.1. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces. Further, sup-
pose that f : X −→ Y is continuous. Then, the graph of f
are simply the identity map and the map f , respectively. Both of them are continu-
ous and by Theorem 1.11 we conclude that i ◦ h is continuous. Finally, Lemma 2.1
implies that h is continuous.
Example 2.1. Consider f (x) = tan x. Since f is continuous on the interval (−π /2, π /2),
the previous theorem implies that the graph of f will be homeomorphic to the inter-
val (−π /2, π /2).
44 2 Homeomorphisms and topological properties
2.2 Connectedness
∃ A1 , A2 ∈ O such that A1 ∩ A2 = 0,
/ A1 ∪ A2 = X ⇐⇒ (X, O) not connected
Example 2.2. Consider the real line equipped with the usual topology and the subset
A = [0, 1]∪(2, 3) equipped with the subspace topology. A is disconnected since [0, 1]
is open and closed in the subspace topology. First of all, note that even though [0, 1]
is closed in R with the usual topology, it is open in the subspace topology of A since
it can be written as the intersection of an open interval of the real line and A as
follows
1 3
[0, 1] = − , ∩ A.
2 2
Moreover, [0, 1] is also closed in the subspace topology of A because
3
A − [0, 1] = (2, 3) = ,4 ∩A
2
Lemma 2.3. Let (X, O) be not connected. Then, there exists a continuous sur-
jection f : X −→ {−1, 1}.
Theorem 2.2. The real line equipped with the usual topology (R, Ou ) is con-
nected.
46 2 Homeomorphisms and topological properties
Proof. By contradiction. Suppose that (R, Ou ) is not connected. Then, there exist
A1 , A2 ⊂ R open in R and both nonempty such that A1 ∪ A2 = R and A1 ∩ A2 = 0. /
Since A1 , A2 6= 0/ there exists a ∈ A1 and b ∈ A2 . Suppose without loss of generality
that a < b and consider the closed interval [a, b] ⊂ R. We construct a sequence of
nasted closed intervals with endpoints in A1 and A2 , respectively. To this purpose
consider the midpoint a+b 2 ∈ [a, b]. There are two cases
a+b
1. 2 ∈ A1 and then 2 , b ⊂ [a, b] with a+b
a+b
2 ∈ A1 and b ∈ A2 ,
a+b
a+b
2. 2 ∈ A2 and then a, 2 ⊂ [a, b] with a ∈ A1 and a+b 2 ∈ A2 .
In any case we end up with a closed interval having endpoints in A1 and A2 , respec-
tively, the interval is contained
[a,b] and
in has length (b − a)/2. Considering the
midpoint of the intervals a+b , b or a, a+b
⊂ [a, b] and proceeding as before we
2 2 a+b
can construct new closed intervals contained in a+b 2 , b or a, 2 ⊂ [a, b] having
the property that their endpoints belong to A1 and A2 , respectively. These inter-
vals have length (b − a)/4. Proceeding inductively we end up with a sequence of
n
nasted
a+b closed
intervals
a+b
where the n-th interval has length (b − a)/2 if we consider
2 , b or a, 2 ⊂ [a, b] to be the first term in such a sequence. Since these in-
tervals have decreasing length they will intersect at some point x0 ∈ R. On the other
side R = A1 ∪ A2 and we have two cases
1. if x0 ∈ A1 , since A1 ∈ Ou there exists an open ball Bεx0 (x0 ) ⊂ A1 where in the
present case Bεx0 (x0 ) = (x0 − εx0 , x0 + εx0 ). Moreover, we can always find a closed
interval contained in (x0 − εx0 , x0 + εx0 ) by requiring that
b−a
< 2εx0
2n
that is
b−a
n > log2
2εx0
but such an interval would have an endpoint in A2 and at the same time it would
be contained in A1 . This is a contradiction and hence, x0 ∈
/ A1 .
2. If x0 ∈ A2 we can proceed as above and end up with a contradiction so that
x0 ∈ A2 .
Therefore, such a point x0 does not exist meaning that a and b cannot have existed.
Therefore, either A1 is empty or A2 is empty. ⊓⊔
In order to show that any open interval with the subspace topology is homeomorphic
to the real line equipped with the usual topology and thus it is connected, we need
some auxiliary results.
Lemma 2.4. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces. Suppose that
(X, OX ) is connected and f : X −→ Y is continuous and surjective. Then,
(Y, OY ) is also connected.
2.2 Connectedness 47
Proof. We have to show that Y and 0/ are the only sets to be open and closed at the
same time. In other words, we have to show that any two subsets A, B ⊂ Y such that
A ∪ B = Y and A ∩ B = 0/ where A and B are open and closed at the same time must
coincide with Y and 0.
/ The continuity of f and a previous lemma about equivalent
characterizations of continuity yield that f −1 (A) and f −1 (B) are both closed and
open in X. Since (X, OX ) is connected, we must have
Proof. Since (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) are homeomorphic, there exists a homeomor-
phism f : X −→ Y and f −1 is also a homeomorphism. The direction =⇒ follows
from Lemma 2.4 because f homeomorhpism ensures that f is continuous and sur-
jective. The other direction follows again from the same lemma with f substituted
by f −1 . ⊓⊔
Theorem 2.4. Any interval (a, b) with a < b and equipped with the subspace
topology is connected.
Proof. Without loss of generality consider the interval (−π /2, π /2) since we can
always use a continuous and bijective map g : (a, b) −→ (−π /2, π /2) such that
π (2x − a − b)
g(x) =
2(b − a)
Lemma 2.5. The interval [0, 1] equipped with the subspace topology is con-
nected.
48 2 Homeomorphisms and topological properties
Proof. By contradiction. Suppose that [0, 1] is not connected. Then, [0, 1] and 0/
are not the onlys sets to be open and closed at the same time. Hence, there exists
nonempty disjoint subsets A and B such that A ∪ B = [0, 1] and A ∩ B = 0. / Let a =
sup{A} and b = sup{B}. Since A and B closed, a theorem in analysis implies that
a ∈ A and b ∈ B. If we show that a = b, then A ∩ B 6= 0/ and we have a contradiction.
We claim that a = b = 1. To this purpose consider the set X coinciding with A or B
and such that 1 ∈ / X. Let α = sup{X}. Since 1 ∈ / X, α must be an interior point of
[0, 1] and therefore, it must be within either X or [0, 1] − X. If α is within X, since X
is open there exists εα > 0 such that (α − εα , α + εα ) ⊂ X. If α is within [0, 1] − X,
′ ′ ′
since this set is open, there exists εα > 0 such that (α − εα , α + εα ) ⊂ [0, 1] − X. In
both cases, α cannot be a supremum since we can find upper bounds α + (εα /2)
′
and α + (εα /2). Hence, it must be sup{X} = 1 but sup{X} = sup{A} = sup{B} and
this completes the proof. ⊓ ⊔
2.3 Path-connectedness
The converse of the above result is not in general true, i.e. a connected topological
space does not need to be path-connected. In order to fully appreciate the next ex-
ample of a topological space which is connected but not path-connected we need
some preliminary results.
Lemma 2.7. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces with (X, OX ) con-
nected. Further, suppose that f : X −→ Y is continuous. Then, the graph of f
denoted by G f is connected.
Proof. Theorem 2.1 implies that G f with the subspace topology is homeomorphic
to (X, OX ) but then Theorem 2.4 forces G f to be connected. ⊓
⊔
We construct now an example showing that connectedness does not imply path-
connectedness.
Example 2.3. Consider R2 with the topology of the open discs induced by the Eu-
clidean metric and the function f : (0, ∞) −→ R defined through
1
f (x) = sin .
x
Since f continuous on (0, ∞) which is connected because it is homeomorphic to the
interval (0, 1), where the homeomorphism is given by the map g : (0, 1) −→ (0, ∞)
with g(x) = x/(1 − x), Lemma 2.7 implies that the graph of f
1
Gf = x, sin ∈ R2 | x ∈ (0, ∞)
x
is connected. We construct the closure of the graph of f and prove that it is con-
nected but not connected. We do this in steps.
1. G f = {0} × [−1, 1] ∪ G f .
Proof. We know that G f = ∂ G f ∪ Int(G f ). Since f is continuous, Theorem 2.1
implies that ((0, ∞), O|(0,∞) and G f equipped with the subspace topology are
homeomorphic. This in turn implies that there exists a homeomorphism ϕ :
(0, ∞) −→ G f . Hence, ϕ is surjective and thus ϕ (0, ∞) = G f . Moreover, (0, ∞)
is open in the subspace topology and the first part of the remark following Defi-
nition311d implies that ϕ (0, ∞) is open in the corresponding subspace topology.
Hence, G f is open and therefore Int(G f ) = G f . Hence, we have G f = ∂ G f ∪ G f .
To get a guess for ∂ G f we look at the graph of f which oscillates and the oscil-
lations become stronger and stronger as we approach 0 from the right showing
the tendency of the graph to pile up on the vertical segment [−1, 1] of the y-axis.
This suggests that the boundary points of G f should be of the form (0, y) with
y ∈ [−1, 1]. It is sufficient to prove (0, y) with y ∈ [−1, 1] belongs to ∂ G f . We
50 2 Homeomorphisms and topological properties
verify that every point p = (0, y p ) ∈ {0} × [−1, 1] also belongs to G f . This will
be the case if every neighbourhood Up of p meets G f , i.e. Up ∩ G f 6= 0./ Since U
neighbourhood of p there exists an open ball Bε p (x) ∈ Ou such that Bε p (x) ⊂ U. If
we show that Bε p (x) ∩ G f 6= 0,
/ then we are done. In particular, we will construct
a point q ∈ R2 such that q ∈ Bε p (x) and q ∈ G f . To this purpose, note that
1 2
sin = 1 for xn =
x π (1 + 4n)
and
1 2
sin = −1 for xen =
x π (3 + 4n)
with n ∈ N. Consider the closed interval
2 2
∆n = , .
π (3 + 4n) π (1 + 4n)
1
sin = yp.
x0
Consider the point
1
q = x0 , sin = (x0 , y p ) ∈ G f .
x0
We show we can always find a ball with centre p containing q. Note that
q
2 1 1 1
d(p, q) = (0 − x0 )2 + (y p − y p )2 = x0 ≤ = < .
π (1 + 4n) 2nπ 1 + 4n1 2nπ
Let
1
<ε
2nπ
and we are done because given any ε < 1 we can choose n such that the above
inequality is satisfied. ⊓
⊔
2. We have to show that G f is connected. This part follows directly from this lemma
Lemma 2.8. Let (X, O) be a topological space and (A, O|A ) connected
with A ⊂ X. Then, (A, O|A ) is also connected.
Proof. (A, O|A ) will be connected if A and 0/ are the only sets to be open and
closed at the same time. To prove uniqueness suppose that A = U ∪ V with U ∩
2.3 Path-connectedness 51
V = 0.
/ Observe that since A ⊂ A we have
A = A ∩ A = A ∩ (U ∪V ) = (A ∩U) ∪ (A ∩V ) = A1 ∪ A2
and by construction
A1 ∩ A2 = (A ∩U) ∩ (A ∩V ) = A ∩ (U ∩V ) = A ∩ 0/ = 0.
/
A ∩U = 0,
/ A ∩V = A or A ∩U = A, A ∩V = 0.
/
Since γ continuous, the inverse image of a closed set under γ is closed. Take the
closed disc in G f characterized by
1
d(γ (t), (0, 1)) ≤ .
2
We want to show that it is possible to find a point in such a disc such that its
distance from the centre is greater than 1/2. The set B1/2 (γ (t)) ∩ G f will be
mapped by γ −1 to the closed interval [1 − δ1/2 , 1] ⊂ [0, 1]. Consider the set γ ([1 −
δ1/2 , 1]). It is connected since [1− δ1/2 , 1] is connected and continuous maps send
connected sets into connected sets. Consider the restriction of γ on [1 − δ1/2 , 1],
that is
γ |[1−δ1/2 ,1] −→ A ⊂ G f , γ |[1−δ1/2 ,1] (t) = (x, y).
Let
γ |[1−δ1/2 ,1] (1 − δ1/2 ) = (x0 , y0 ).
and
1
(πX ◦ γ )(1 − δ1/2 ) = πX (γ (1 − δ1/2 )) = πX x0 , sin = x0 .
x0
For n large enough we can always construct a point xe1 ∈ (0, x0 ) such that
1
xe1 =
2nπ − π2
but then
1 π
sin = sin 2nπ − = −1
xe1 2
t ∈ [1 − δ1/2 , 1]. Hence, by construction the point
for some e
1
γ (e
t) = , −1
2nπ − π2
Problems
Definition 2.5. We say that a topological space (X, O) has the Hausdorff
property if and only if for all x, y ∈ X with x 6= y there exists neighbourhoods
Ux and Uy of x and y, respectively, such that Ux ∩Uy = 0. /
Lemma 2.9. Every metrizable topological space has the Hausdorff property.
Proof. Let (X, O) be a metrizable topological space. Then, there exists a metric d
such that O coincides with the topology O(d) induced by the metric d. Take the
open balls as a basis of the induced topology. Let x, y ∈ X with x 6= y and d(x, y) = r
for some r > 0. We can always construct neighbourhoods Ux = Br/2 (x) and Uy =
Br/2 (y) such that Ux ∩Uy = 0./ ⊓ ⊔
The above result tells us that every metric space has the Hausdorff property. Can we
find some examples of topological spaces that do not have such a property? Yes and
we give some examples here below.
Example 2.4. Some topological spaces that do not possess the Hausdorff property
are
1. Consider X = {a, b} equipped with the trivial topology O = {0, / X}. Although
a 6= b we cannot find any neighbourhood of a and b, respectively, since there is
only one set at disposal and this is X itself.
2. A less trivial example is represented by R equipped with the Zariski topology
OZ = {U ⊂ R | R −U finite} ∪ {0,
/ R}.
Example 2.5. Every set equipped with the discrete topology is a topological space
with the Hausdorff property. Let us consider (X, O) with O = P(X). For any x, y ∈
X with x 6= y we can take as neighbourhoods Ux = {x} and and Uy = {y} in P(X).
Clearly, Ux ∩Uy = 0.
/
One of the advantage of working with a topological space having the Hausdorff
property is that convergent sequences have a unique limit.
Definition 2.6. Let (X, O) be a topological space and (xn )n∈N a sequence of
points in X. We say that the sequence converges to a ∈ X if
Example 2.6. In a trivial topological space every sequence is convergent and its limit
is not unique since it converges to all points in X. To see that, take a set X and the
trivial topology. Let (xn )n∈N be a sequence in X and a ∈ X. The only neighbourhood
of a we can consider is Ua = X and we have xn ∈ X for all n ≥ 1. Take N = 1 and
conclude that xn → a as n → ∞. Hence, the sequence is convergent. Since we started
with an arbitrary a ∈ X, the conclusion will hold for any a ∈ X.
Lemma 2.10. In every topological space with the Hausdorff property the limit
of a convergent sequence is unique.
Proof. Let (X, O) have the Hausdorff property. Further, consider a convergent se-
quence (xn )n∈N in X. Let a ∈ X be its limit. Further suppose that b 6= a is also a limit
of the same sequence. Then, for every neighbourhhod Ub of b there exists N ∈ N
such that xn ∈ Ub for all n ≥ N. Take any neighbourhood Ub . Since (X, O) is Haus-
dorff and b 6= a there exists a neighbourhood Va of a such that Va ∩Ub = 0/ but then
pnly a finite number of terms in the sequence can be found in Va which contradict
the initial assumption that the sequence converges to a. ⊓ ⊔
can find neighbourhoods U f (x1 ) and V f (x2 ) such that U f (x1 ) ∩V f (x2 ) = 0.
/ Since f is
continuous, the inverse images f −1 (U f (x1 ) ) and f −1 (V f (x2 ) ) are neighbourhoods
of x1 and x2 , respectively. Moreover,
a. =⇒: let (X, OX ) be Hausdorff. Since (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) are homeomorphic,
there exists a homeomorphism h : X −→ Y . Since h−1 : Y −→ X is continuous
and injective, we can apply 3. to conclude that (Y, OY ) is Hausdorff.
b. ⇐=: let (Y, OY ) be Hausdorff. Apply 3. to h : X −→ Y which is injective and
continuous. ⊓ ⊔
The quotient space of a Hausdorff topological space does not need to be Hausdorff.
Problems
OZ = {U ⊂ R | R −U finite} ∪ {0,
/ R}.
2.5 Compactness
This topological property plays an important role for example in real analysis where
one can show that if a function is continuous on a compact interval then it mus be
bounded there.
the same property P must be true globally, i.e. for the whole space X. This
is not surprising because X compact implies that X can be written as a finite
union of open sets where each open set has the property P and therefore, the
property P will be transmitted to X.
Example 2.7. Let (X, O) be compact and consider the real line equipped with the
usual topology. Suppose that f : X −→ R is locally bounded, that is for every U ⊂ X
with U ∈ O there exists M ≥ 0 such that | f (x)| ≤ M for all x ∈ U. Then, f is bounded
on X. This can be verified as follows. Since (X, O) is compact, there exists a finite
S
subcover {U1 , · · · ,Un } with Ui ∈ O for all i = 1, · · · , n and X ⊆ ni=1 Ui . On the other
hand, f is bounded and therefore, for all Ui we can find Mi ≥ 0 such that | f (x)| ≤ Mi
for all x ∈ Ui . Take M = max1≤i≤n {Mi }. Then, | f (x)| ≤ M for all x ∈ X and we
conclude that f is bounded on X.
Example 2.8. We present some examples of compact and noncompact topological
spaces.
1. (0, 1) equipped with the subspace topology is not compact.
Proof. By contradiction. Suppose the given interval is compact. Take the open
cover
1
U = , 1 ⊂ (0, 1) | n ∈ N .
n
Note that
[ 1
, 1 = (0, 1).
n≥2
n
Then,
N
[ 1 1
,1 = , 1 ⊂ (0, 1)
i=1
ni M
with M = max{n1 , · · · , nN }.
2. The real line equipped with the ussual topology is not compact. ⊓
⊔
Proof. By contradiction. Consider the open cover U = {(n − 1, n + 1) ⊂ R | n ∈
S
N} and note that Un∈N (n − 1, n + 1) = R since the open intervals form a basis
for R. Consider the finite subcover {(n1 − 1, n1 + 1), · · · , (nN − 1, nN + 1)}. Then,
N
[
(ni − 1, ni + 1) = (M − 1, M + 1) ⊂ R, M = max{n1 , · · · , nN }
i=1
58 2 Homeomorphisms and topological properties
· · · In ⊂ In−1 ⊂ · · · ⊂ I2 ⊂ I1 ,
where none of them has a finite subcover and the legth of In is 1/2n . Since the
length of these intervals decreases and they are all closed we must have
∞
\
In = {x} with x ∈ [0, 1].
n=1
Since [0, 1] has an open cover, there exists U ∈ U such that x ∈ U. Since U
is open in the subspace topology, there exists Bεx (x) ∩ [0, 1] such that Bεx (x) ∩
[0, 1] ⊂ U with Bεx (x) = (x − εx , x + εx ). Requiring that 1/2n < 2εx , that is n >
log2 21εx , we can always construct an interval In ⊂ Bεx (x) ∩ [0, 1] ⊂ U and U is a
finite subcover for In which is impossible by the way we constructed In . Hence,
[0, 1] mus be compact. ⊓ ⊔
2.5 Compactness 59
Similarly, one can prove that any interval of the form [a, b] with a < b must be
compact in the subspace topology.
if and only if
!
N
[ N
[ N
[
−1
f (X) ⊆ f f (Ui ) = f ( f −1 (Ui )) = Ui .
i=1 i=1 i=1
Proof. =⇒: since (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) are homeomorphic, there is a homeomor-
phism f : X −→ Y . Let (X, OX ) be compact. Since f homeomorphism, f is sur-
jective and f (X) = Y . Moreover, f is continuous. Hence, Lemma 2.12 implies that
(Y, OY ) is compact. The other direction follows again from Lemma 2.12 applied to
f −1 . ⊓
⊔
We want to find a characterization for compactness in the framework of metric
spaces. To this purpose we need some auxiliary results.
60 2 Homeomorphisms and topological properties
Lemma 2.14. Let (X, d) be a metric space and H ⊂ X. If (H, O|H ) is com-
pact, then it is also bounded.
Proof. Since (H, O|H ) is compact, there exists a finite subcover V = {Ui ⊂ H | Ui ∈
S
O|H ∀ i = 1, · · · , n} such that H ⊆ ni=1 Ui . On the other side, Ui O|H and it can be
represented as Ui = Bri (xi ) ∩ H with xi ∈ X for all i = 1, · · · , n because the open balls
form a basis for the topology induced by the metric. Hence,
n
[
H⊆ Bri (xi ).
i=1
S
Let R = max1≤i≤n {r1 + d(x, xi ) + ri }. Then, ni=1 Bri (xi ) ⊆ BR (x1 ). Indeed, if x ∈
Sn
i=1 Bri (xi ), then x will belong to at least one open ball, say Br j (xi ). We have x ∈
BR (x1 ) since
Lemma 2.15. Let (X, O) be Hausdorff and (H, O|H ) compact with H ⊂ X.
Then, H is closed.
Proof. We need to show that X − H is open in X, that is for all x ∈ X − H there exists
Ux ∈ O such that x ∈ Ux ⊂ X −H. Take any x ∈ X −H. Since (X, O) is Hausdorff, we
(y) (y)
can always find disjoint neighbourhoods U1 of x and U2 of y ∈ H. The superscript
y emphasizes that the choice of the neighbourhoods U1 and U2 depends on the point
y we consider in H. Repeating the procedure for every y ∈ H we can construct a
family of neighbourhoods
(y) (y)
{U2 ⊂ X | U2 neighbourhood of y ∀ y ∈ H}
(y)
whose neighbourhoods are disjoint from teh corresponding neighbourhood U1 of x
and such that they cover H. To get an open cover for H we observe that by definition
2.5 Compactness 61
Proof. Let (X, d) be a metric space and H ⊂ X be equipped with the subspace topol-
ogy. Then, Lemma 2.14 ensures that H is bounded. Since every metric metric space
is Hausdorff, Lemma 2.16 implies that H is closed. ⊓ ⊔
Finally, the results obtained so far allow us to generalize a famous result in analysis
concerning boundedness of continuous functions on a compact interval and prove
the Heine-Borel theorem.
Proof. Let (X, O) be compact and R be equipped with the usual topology. Consider
the continuous function f : X −→ R. Then, Lemma 2.12 implies that f (X) ⊂ R with
the subspace topology is compact. Since R with the usual topology is a metric space,
62 2 Homeomorphisms and topological properties
Theorem 2.12 implies that f (X) is closed. Since it is closed, we have sup{ f (X)}
and inf{ f (X)} belong to f (X). Hence, there exists xm , xM ∈ X such that f (xm ) =
inf{ f (X)} and f (xM ) = sup{ f (X)} thus implying that f (x) ≤ f (xM ) for all x ∈ X.
⊔
⊓
Proof. The direction =⇒ follows from Theorem 2.5 since the real line equipped
with the usual topology is a metric space. Concerning the other direction, let K ⊂ R
be closed and bounded. Since it is bounded there exists an open interval (−a, a) with
a > 0 such that K ⊂ (−a, a). Moreover, (−a, a) ⊂ [−a, a]. Hence, K ⊂ [−a, a] but
[−a, a] is compact and any finite subcover of [−a, a] will be also a finite subcover
for K. Hence, K is compact. ⊓ ⊔
This theorem can be generalized to compact subsets of Rn . The part of the proof
treating the implication =⇒ does not change. Concerning the part ⇐=, since K is
bounded there exists an open ball BR (a) ∈ O(dE )such that K ⊂ BR (a) ⊆ BR (a) is
closed. Moreover, BR (a) is bounded because we can take an open ball BR+ε (a) with
ε > 0 since then BR (a) ⊂ BR+ε (a). Then, BR (a) is compact and any finite subcover
of BR (a) will also be a finite subcover for K.
Theorem 2.8. Let (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) be topological spaces. Then, the prod-
uct space (X × Y, OX×Y ) is compact if and only if (X, OX ) and (Y, OY ) are
compact.
Wλ(x,y) ∈ OX×Y , there exists an open box U(x,y) × V(x,y) with U(x,y) ,V(x,y) ∈ OX×Y
such that (x, y) ∈ U(x,y) ×V(x,y) ⊂ Wλ(x,y) . Keep x fixed. Then,
f= {V(x,y) ⊂ Y | y ∈ Y }
U
Each of these open boxes will be contained in some Wλ (xi ,y j (x)) that is
The above result can be extended to a finite product of compact topological spaces
by induction and it has been generalized to the product of infinitely many compact
spaces by Tychonoff (1930). Sometimes in proving that two topological spaces are
homeomorphic we face the situation where we are able to construct a bijective and
continuous map f but it results difficult to verify that f −1 is continuous. The next
result is a solution to this problem when certain conditions on the domain and range
of f are satisfied.
64 2 Homeomorphisms and topological properties
Proof. Let g = f −1 : Y −→ X. Show that for all A ⊂ X closed the inverse image
g−1 (A) is closed in Y . Take any A ⊂ X closed in X. Since X is compact, Lemma 2.16
implies that A is compact. Moreover, g−1 (A) = f (A). Since f continuous, f (A) is
compact in Y by Lemma 2.12. Now f (A) is a compact subspace of a Hausdorff
space and it must be closed. Hence, g−1 (A) is closed in Y . ⊓ ⊔
Proof. Since (X, O) is compact, it has an open cover U . With this open cover we
can cosntruct an open cover for H by considering U ∩H. Since H is closed, X −H ∈
O and therefore we can construct a new open cover for X given by U ∩H and X −H.
Since (X, O) is compact, there exists a finite subcover of X
{U1 ∩ H, · · · ,Un ∩ H} ∪ {X − H}
The main goal of this chapter is to present a series of examples of topological spaces
which play a fundamental role in functional analysis, namely the topological vector
spaces.
The first example of topological vector space we are going to study is represented
by normed spaces.
65
66 3 Topological vector spaces
kuk = ku − v + vk ≤ ku − vk + kvk
The metric d introduced in Lemma 3.2 induces a topology O(d) on V , thus making
(V, O(d)) a topological space. It is not difficult to check that Definition 3.1 applies
and therefore (V, k · k) is a topological vector space. Furthermore, the norm is a
continuous map. Last but not least, since every normed space is a metric space, it
will also have the Hausdorff property.
3.2 Finite-dimensional normed spaces 67
Problems
3.1. Consider a normed vector space (V, k·k) with norm defined as d(u, v) = ku−vk
for all u, v ∈ V . Let O(d) be the topology induced on V . Show that (V, k · k) is a
topological vector space. Furthermore, using Lemma 3.1 show that the norm is a
continuous map.
d(u, v) = ku − vk ∀ u, v ∈ Rn
The main goal of this section is to show that all norms on Rn induce the same
topology. To prove this we need some preliminary results.
′
Definition 3.3. Let V be a vector space over K. Two norms k · k and k · k on
V are equivalent if there exists k1 , k2 > 0 such that
′
k1 kuk ≤ kuk ≤ k2 kuk ∀ u ∈ V.
The above definition introduces an equivalence relation on the set of all norms.
′
Two equivalent norms on V induce the same topology on V because if k · k and k · k
′
are such norms and d and d the associated metrics, then
′
Br/k2 (u, d) ⊂ Br (u, d ) ⊂ Br/k1 (u, d)
for all u ∈ V and r ∈ R with r > 0. We finally prove that all norms on Rn are equiva-
lent. This together with the result in Problem3.4 implies that all induced topologies
68 3 Topological vector spaces
on Rn are equivalent, so that in principle we can say that there is only one induced
topology on Rn .
′ ′
Theorem 3.1. Let k · k be an arbitrary norm on Rn . Then, k · k and k · k∞ are
equivalent. In particular, all norms in Rn induce the same topology.
′
Proof. Show that there exists k1 , k2 > 0 such that k1 kuk ≤ kuk ≤ k2 kuk∞ for all
u = (u1 , · · · , un ) ∈ Rn. Consider the hypersphere Sn = {u ∈ Rn | kuk∞ = 1} and the
′ ′
continuous map k · k : S −→ R. Since Sn is a compact subset of Rn and k · k is
S S
continuous, then the image of Sn under the given map is a compact subset of R by
Lemma 2.13. Heine-Borel theorem requires that this compact subset of R must be a
closed and bounded interval, say [k1 , k2 ]. Hence, for all u ∈ Sn there exists k1 , k2 > 0
′
such that k1 ≤ kuk ≤ k2 . Moreover, for all u ∈ Rn \{0} we have
′
kuk
′ u
kuk =
kuk∞ = ≤ k2 kuk∞
kuk∞ kuk∞
and ′
kuk∞ 1 1
′ ′ ′ ′
kuk = ′ kuk = u kuk ≤ kuk
kuk kuk k1
∞
′
and hence, k1 kuk∞ ≤ kuk . Combining both inequalities obtained above we find that
′
k1 kuk∞ ≤ kuk ≤ kuk∞ and since this inequality also holds for u = 0, we conclude
that these norms are equivalent on Rn . ⊓
⊔
Problems
is a normed space.
3.3. Show that Definition 3.3 introduces an equivalence relation on the set of all
norms.
3.4. Show that two equivalent norms on V induce the same topology on V , that is if
′ ′
k · k and k · k are such norms and d and d the associated metrics, prove that
′
Br/k2 (u, d) ⊂ Br (u, d ) ⊂ Br/k1 (u, d)
The goal of this section is to show that linear maps between normed spaces are also
continuous and vice-versa. Hence, on a normed space linearity is a synonimous of
continuity and this is a wonderful result emerging from the marriage between linear
algebra (introduced by means of vector spaces) and topology (introduced through
the distance induced by the norm and its continuity).
Definition 3.4. Let (V, k · kV ) and (W, k · kW ) be normed spaces with V,W vec-
tor spaces over K. A map ϕ : V −→ W is said to be linear if
ϕ (0V ) = ϕ (0 · 0V ) = 0ϕ (0V ) = 0W .
′
Corollary 3.1. Let k · k be any norm on Rn . Further, consider the normed
space (V, k · kV ) and a linear map ψ : Rn −→ V . Then, ψ is continuous on
′
(Rn , k · k ).
Problems
A.1 Cardinality
The concept of cardinality has been developed to compare the sizes of two sets.
Consider for instance the sets S = {x ∈ R | x2 = 4} and T = {1, 2, 3} having two and
three elements, respectively. Intuitively, we would say that the size of T is greater
than the size of S because T has more elements than S. Even though this idea works
well for finite sets we need to formalize it also for infinite sets like the set of the
natural numbers N and the set of all real numbers R.
Definition A.1. Two sets S and T have the same size, (or are equivalent or equinu-
merous) and we write S ∼ T if there exists a bijection f : S −→ T .
Definition A.2. A set S is finite if S = 0/ or there exists a natural number n such that
S ∼ In = {1, 2, · · · , n}. In is called the indexing set. We say that S is infinite if it is
not finite. Further, S is denumerable if S ∼ N. Finally, a set is countable if it is finite
or denumerable. A set is uncountable if it is not countable.
Example A.1. Let S and T be two sets having both n elements. We want to show
that these sets are equinumerous, that is we have to construct a bijection h : S −→ T .
73
74 A The Continuum Hypothesis
The property of two sets being equinumerous is fundamental for the introduction
of the concept of cardinal number. To this purpose, consider a countable family
of sets F = {Ui | i ∈ I} with indexing set I = In or I = N. The property of being
equinumerous is an equivalence relation on F . This can be easily verified as follows
1. reflexivity: a natural bijection is represented by the identity map f : Ui −→ Ui
and hence Ui ∼ Ui .
2. symmetry: if Ui ∼ U j with i 6= j then there exists a bijection f : Ui −→ U j . On the
other hand f −1 : U j −→ Ui is also a bijection and we can conclude that U j ∼ Ui .
3. transitivity: if Ui ∼ U j and U j ∼ Uk with i 6= j 6= k, it follows that Ui ∼ Uk because
composition of bijective maps is again a bijection.
Therefore, ∼ induces a partition of F into equivalence classes [Ui ] = {Uk ∈
F | Uk ∼ Ui }.
Definition A.3. A cardinal number or cardinality of a set is defined to be the size
of the sets belonging to an equivalence class determined by the relation ∼.
Clearly, two sets will have the same cardinal numbers if they are equinumerous.
Example A.2. The cardinal number of the set In is n. If S ∼ In , than S belongs to
the equivalence class having In as a representative and therefore we say that the
cardinality of S is n. The empty set 0/ has cardinality 0.
Definition A.4. If a cardinal number is not finite, it is called transfinite. The cardinal
number of a denumerable set is denoted by ℵ0 .
It is in general not true that every infinite set has cardinal number ℵ0 because an infi-
nite set does not need to be denumerable. This suggests that we could have different
infinite sets having different sizes of infinity.
In the world of denumerable sets it could be very dangerous to try to apply some
common sense gained from the experience of working with finite sets. Consider,
for instance, the set N and the set O of all odd natural numbers. Is the size of O
smaller than the size of N? The answer is no since we can always set up a bijection
f : N −→ O such that f (n) = 2n − 1. Hence, O and N are equinumerous and as a
consequence they have the same size.
Exercise A.1. We want to show that the set of the integer numbers Z is denumerable
and it has the same cardinality of N. We need to set up a bijection f : N −→ Z. To
A.2 Countable sets 75
do that we observe that N is given by the union of the set E of all even numbers and
the set O of all odd numbers. The required bijection is given by
n
if n ∈ E,
f (n) = 2 n−1
− 2 if n ∈ O.
This implies that the cardinality of the integers is the same as the cardinality of the
natural numbers, that is
|Z| = |N| = ℵ0 .
We want now to look at some counting processes for finite and denumerable sets.
We consider the following two cases
1. Let S = {s1 , s2 , · · · , sn } be a finite set with cardinality n. Then, S ∼ In and there is
a bijection f : In −→ S. We can use f to count off the elements of S as follows
2. Suppose that the set T = {t1 ,t2 , · · ·} is denumerable. Then, there is a bijection
h : N −→ T that can be used to count the elements of T as follows
For this reason finite and denumerable sets are called countable sets. Moreover, it is
not difficult to prove that the finite union of finite sets is finite and every subset of a
finite set is finite.
Theorem A.1. A finite union of finite sets is finite.
Proof. Let A1 , · · · , An be finite sets and let m = max{|A1 |, · · · , |An |}. Then,
[n n n
Ak ≤ ∑ |Ak | ≤ ∑ m = mn.
k=1 k=1 k=1
Note that in the first inequality the equality will hold whenever the sets A1 , · · · , An
are all mutually disjoint. ⊓⊔
Clearly, arbitrary unions of finite sets do not need to be finite as the following coun-
terexample shows. Consider the finite set Ai = {i} with i ∈ N. Then,
[
Ai = N
i∈N
Theorem A.3. Let S 6= 0/ and J be a set such that J = In if S is finite and otherwise
J = N if S is denumerable. Then, the following statements are equivalent
1. S is countable;
2. there exists an injection f : S −→ J;
3. there exists a surjection g : J −→ S.
Proof. We break down the proof in three parts.
1. 1. =⇒ 2.: let S be countable. Then, S is finite or denumerable and hence there
exists a bijection h : J −→ S such that J = In for some n ∈ N if S is finite and
J = N if S is denumerable. Clearly, h−1 : S −→ J is also a bijection. Let f = h−1
and we are done.
2. 2. =⇒ 3.: let f : S −→ J be an injection. Then, f : S −→ f (S) ⊆ J is a bijection
and therefore f −1 : f (S) −→ S is also a bijection. We use f −1 to construct a
surjective map g : J −→ S as follows
−1
f (n) if n ∈ f (S),
g(n) =
p for some p ∈ S if n ∈ J\ f (S).
By means of Theorem A.3 it is possible to show that the countable union of count-
able sets is countable and that the Cartesian product of two countable sets is again
countable.
Theorem A.4. The countable union of countable sets is countable.
Proof. It is sufficient to show that the union of two countable sets is again countable,
since the rest can be proved by induction. Let S and T be two countable sets. We
have two cases.
1. If S = 0/ = T or S = 0,
/ T 6= 0/ or S 6= 0,
/ T = 0/ the statement is trivial.
2. Let S, T 6= 0.
/ Then, since S and T countable there exist surjections f : J −→ S
and g : J −→ T . If we are able to construct a surjection h : J −→ S ∪ T , then
Theorem A.3 will make the rest. Such a surjective map can be constructed as
follows n+1
f 2 if n odd,
h(n) =
g n2 if n even
and this completes the proof. ⊓
⊔
Theorem A.5. The Cartesian product of two nonempty countable sets is countable.
Proof. Let S and T be nonempty and countable. Then, Theorem A.3 implies that
there exist injections f : S −→ J and g : T −→ J. If we can construct an injection
h : S × T −→ J, then Theorem A.3 will make the rest. Inspired by the fact that every
natural number can be written as a prduct of primes and the representation is unique
up to the order of the factors (for instance 12 = 22 · 3 = 3 · 22 ) we define h as follows
for all s ∈ S and for all t ∈ T . The map h is injective since for any s, u ∈ S and for
any t, v ∈ T we have
Proof. We first show that (0, 1) and R are equinumerous by introducing a bijection
f : (0, 1) −→ R defined through f (x) = tan π (x − 1/2). In this way it is sufficient
to prove that (0, 1) is uncountable. We will do it by contradiction and make use of
Cantor’s diagonal argument. Suppose that (0, 1) is countable. Then, there exists a
bijection g : N −→ (0, 1) and the real numbers in (0, 1) can be represented by the
list {x1 , x2 , · · ·}. These numbers will have decimal representations
Canto’s diagonal argument shows that we can construct a real number which is not
contained in the list above and therefore this number cannot be in correspondence
with any natural number. Let us construct a real number ω = 0.a1 a2 a3 · · · as follows:
a1 must be different from a11 so that ω cannot be x1 , a2 must be different from a22
so that ω cannot be x2 , a3 must be different from a33 so that ω cannot be x3 and so
on. In this way, ω does not coincide with any number xi for all i ∈ N and therefore,
it cannot be put in correspondence with any natural number. ⊓ ⊔
Another example of an uncountable set is provided by the set of all irrational num-
bers.
Exercise A.4. We want to show that the set of all irrational numbers is uncount-
able. Let I denote such a set. Then, R = I ∪ Q. By contradiction suppose that I is
countable.Then, since Q is countable and the countable union of countable sets is
countable we conclude that the set of all real numbers is countable and hence, we
reach a contradiction.
80 A The Continuum Hypothesis
We already know that two sets S and T have the same size if they are equinumerous.
This is equivalent to say that they have the same cardinal numbers and we write
|S| = |T | where | · | denotes the cardinal number of a set.
Definition A.5. We say that S is smaller than T and we write |S| ≤ |T |, if there exists
an injection but no surjection f : S −→ T .
Note that if S would be larger than T we would have at least two distinct elements
of S mapped to the same element of T and the map f could not be injective. The
next theorem describes some basic properties of cardinal numbers.
Theorem A.7. Let S, T and U be sets. Then,
1. |S| ≤ |T | if S ⊆ T ;
2. |S| ≤ |S|;
3. |S| ≤ |U| if |S| ≤ |T | and |T | ≤ U|;
4. |Im | ≤ |In | if m ≤ n with m, n ∈ N;
5. |S| < ℵ0 if S is finite.
Example A.3. Consider the set S = {a, b, c}. The corresponding power set is
P(S) = {0,
/ S, {a}, {b}, {c}, {a, b}, {a, c}, {b, c}}.
The cardinality of S is |S| = 3 e that of the power set is |P(S)| = 23 = 8. Note that
|S| < |P(S)|.
B = {x ∈ S | x ∈
/ g(x)} ⊆ S.
Then, B ⊆ S implies that B ∈ P(S) and g surjective implies that there exists an a ∈ S
such that g(a) = B. We have two cases.
1. If a ∈ B, then the way we defined B implies that a ∈
/ g(a) but g(a) = B and hence
a∈ / B.
2. If a ∈
/ B, then the way we defined B implies that a ∈ g(a) but g(a) = B and hence
a ∈ B.
In any case we have a contradiction and such a surjection cannot exist. ⊓
⊔
Let us take S = N and apply Theorem A.8 recursively. We obtain an infinite sequence
of transfinite cardinals, namely
What is the first cardinal greater than ℵ0 ? In other words, is it possible to find a
transfinite cardinal number , say λ , such that ℵ0 < λ < c? This is equivalent to ask
if there exists any set having size between N and R. Such a set has not yet been
discovered and the Cantor was the first to conjecture that such set does not exist.
This conjecture is known under the name Continuum Hypothesis. This conjecture
has been included in 1900 as the first of Hilbert’s 23 unsolved problems and till
now nobody knows if this conjecture is true or not. There is the possibility that this
question is unanswerable since
1. the assumption of the Continuum Hypthesis does not contradict any of the usual
axioms of set theory (Gödel, 1938).
2. It has been shown that the denial of the Continuum Hypothesis does not lead to
any contradiction (Cohen, 1963).
In other words, the Continuum Hypothesis is undecidable, i.e. it can’t be proved nor
disproved, on the basis of the currently accepted axioms for set theory.
Appendix B
Quick review of real analysis
We give a short review of those concepts of real analysis the reader should be famil-
iar with. The exposition follows mainly [4].
Upper and lower bounds of a set S do not need to belong to S. Further, a set can have
many upper and/or lower bounds.
Definition B.2. Let 0/ 6= S ⊂ R and S bounded from above. The least upper bound
of S is a number u ∈ R such that u is an upper bound of S and L ≥ u for every upper
bound L of S. If S is bounded from below, the greatest lower bound of S is a number
m ∈ R such that m is a lower bound of S and ℓ ≤ m for every lower bound ℓ of S.
The least upper bound and the greatest lower bound of a set S do not need to belong
to S. Further, they are unique when they exist. By sup (S) we denote the supremum
of S, i.e. the least upper bound of S whereas inf (S) called the infimum of S is the
greatest lower bound of S.
Theorem B.1. Any nonempty subset S of R that is bounded from above has a least
upper bound (similarly for greatest lower bound).
Finally, for every x, y ∈ R
83
84 B Quick review of real analysis
You can think to a sequence as of an infinite string (s1 , s2 , · · ·). This in turn motivates
the notation s = (sn )n∈N . A sequence s is infinite but its image set s(N) does not need
to be infinite.
Definition B.4. A real sequence s = (sn )n∈N converges to ℓ ∈ R if for every ε > 0
there exists an N ∈ N such that |sn − ℓ| < ε whenever n > N.
In general, sequences might or might not converge. However, if a sequence con-
verges its limit is unique. For simple sequences we can often guess the limit and
prove convergence by applying Def. B.4. There are situations when it may be hard
or impossible to guess the limit. The next two theorems combined with the concepts
of bounded monotone sequence and Cauchy sequence allow to prove convergence
without using a known value of the limit.
Definition B.5. A real sequence (sn )n∈N is monotone increasing (decreasing) if
sn+1 ≥ sn (sn+1 ≤ sn ) for every n ∈ N. It is monotone if it has either of these proper-
ties.
Definition B.6. A real sequence (sn )n∈N is a Cauchy sequence if fore every ε > 0
there exists an N ∈ N such that |sn − sm | < ε for every n, m > N.
if for every ε > 0 there exists a δ > 0 such that for all x ∈ D, | f (x) − ℓ| < ε whenever
0 < |x − a| < δ .
In general, f (a) 6= ℓ. Moreover, the point a does not need to belong to the domain
of definition of f . What is important is that D contains numbers x arbitrarily close
to a so that the distance |x − a| can be made arbitrarily small. The next result is
fundamental to give a sequential characterization of continuity.
References 85
References
1. Gödel, K.: The Consistency of the Continuum-Hypothesis, Princeton University Press (1940)
2. Cohen, P. J.:The Independence of the Continuum Hypothesis, Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 50 1143-48 (1963)
3. Lay, S.: Analysis with an Introduction to Proof, Prentice Hall (2004)
4. Sutherland, W. A.: Introduction to metrical and topological spaces, Clarendon Press Oxford
(1986)
86 B Quick review of real analysis
References
1. Hijab, O.: Introduction to Calculus and Classical Analysis, Springer Verlag, New York, Hei-
delberg (1997)
2. Sutherland, W. A.: INTRODUCTION TO METRIC AND TOPOLOGICAL SPACES,
Clarendon Press, Oxford (1986)