Professor Smith Math 295 Lecture Notes: 1 October 29: Compactness, Open Covers, and Subcovers

Professor Smith Math 295 Lecture Notes
by John Holler
Fall 2010
1 October 29: Compactness, Open Covers, and

Subcovers.
1.1 Reexamining Wednesday’s proof
There seemed to be a bit of confusion about our proof of the generalized Intermediate
Value Theorem which is:
Theorem 1: If f : X → Y is continuous, and S ⊆ X is a connected subset (con-
nected under the subspace topology), then f (S) is connected.
We’ll approach this problem by first proving a special case of it:
Theorem 1: If f : X → Y is continuous and surjective and X is connected, then Y
is connected.
Proof of 2: Suppose not. Then Y is not connected.
S This by T definition means ∃
non-empty open sets A, B ⊂ Y such that A B = Y and A B = ∅. Since f is
continuous, both f −1 (A) and f −1 (B) are open. Since f is surjective, both f −1 (A)
and f −1 (B) are non-emptyS because A and B areSnon-empty. But the surjectivity
−1 −1
of f also means f (A) f (B) = X, since A B = Y . AdditionallyTwe have
−1
T −1 −1 −1
f (A) f (B) = ∅. For T if not, then we would have that ∃x ∈ f (A) f (B)
which implies f (x) ∈ A B = ∅ which is a contradiction. But then these two
non-empty open sets f −1 (A) and f −1 (B) disconnect X. QED
Now we want to show that Theorem 2 implies Theorem 1. This will require the help
from a few lemmas, whose proofs are on Homework Set 7:
Lemma 1: If f : X → Y is continuous, and S ⊆ X is any subset of X then the
restriction f |S : S → Y, x 7→ f (x) is also continuous.
Lemma 2: Given any function f : X → Y of topological spaces, f is continuous
⇐⇒ f : X → f (X) is continuous.
1
For example, notice that sin(x) is continuous whether we think of its range to be
R or the interval [−1, 1].
Now we will show that assuming these two lemmas, Theorem 2 ⇒ Theorem 1.
Proof: Take any continuous mapping f : X → Y and connected S ⊆ X.
By Lemma 1, f |S : S → Y is still continuous and by Lemma 2, f |S : S → f (S) is also
continuous. By definition this function is surjective and so we may apply Theorem
2 to show that f (S) is connected.
1.2 Open Covers.

We start with the definition:
Definition: Let X be any topological space and S ⊆ X any subset. An open cover
of S is any collection of open sets in X whose union contains S. In math symbols
we have that a collection of open sets
{Uλ }λ∈Λ
is an open cover of S if and only if

[
S⊆ Uλ .
λ∈Λ
Now we will provide some examples to help understand the nature of open covers.
First, let’s assume X = R and S = R:
• Example: The one-set open cover {R} covers R
• Example: Let Un = (n, n + 2) where n ∈ Z. The collection {Un }n∈Z is an open

cover of R. Here we would have a lot of overlap of the open sets.
• Example: Let Un = (−n, n) with n ∈ N. The collection {Un }n∈Z is a nested

open cover of R. Here there is even more overlapping, as each set contains all
the previous ones.
Example: Now let X = R and S = (0, 1). The two collection of two sets
{(− 21 , 12 ), (0, 32 )} is an open cover. Since it consists of only two sets, we say it
is a finite cover.
2
Sometimes a collection of open sets can cover a set S with a lot of redundancy.
For example, the set S = (0, 1) is has an open cover
3 1 1 1
{(0, ), ( , ), ( , 1)},
4 4 2 4
but of course, we don’t actually need all three of these sets in the cover to do the
job. The first and the third sets in the cover also cover S, that is the collection
3 1
{(0, ), ( , 1)}
4 4
is a subcover of S. We make the following formal definition:
Definition: If {Uλ }λ∈Λ is a collection of open sets, a subcollection is any collection
of fewer sets from the collection. We can write it {Uλ }λ∈Λ0 where Λ0 is some subset
of the indexing set Λ. If the collection {Uλ }λ∈Λ is an open cover S, a subcover is a
subcollection {Uλ }λ∈Λ0 which also covers S.
It is important to note that a subcover consists of “fewer” open sets Un , not
“smaller” sets. So for example, as above, we saw that the the collection {(0, 34 ), ( 14 , 1)}
is a subcover of the open cover {(0, 43 ), ( 14 , 21 ), ( 41 , 1)} of (0, 1). However, the collection
{(0, 12 ), ( 14 , 12 ), ( 14 , 1)} is not a subcover.
There are usually many different ways to cover a set S. Here are some more open
covers of S = (0, 1).
1. Example: Let Un = (− n2 , n2 ). Obviously

[
Un
n∈N
contains (0, 1), so it is an open cover of (0, 1). But this is a very inefficient cover.
The subcover consisting of just the first two sets U1 , U2 also covers (0, 1). So
the open cover {Un }n∈N has a finite subcover consisting of just two open sets.
2. Example of a cover with no finite subcover: Let Un = ( n1 , 1). These sets,

as n ranges through the natural numbers, give an open cover of (0, 1). Indeed,
you can easily prove using the archimedian property of R that
[ 1
( , 1) = (0, 1).
n∈N
n
3
This is an interesting open cover because no finite collection of {Un }n∈N can
cover (0, 1). For example, ( 21 , 1) ∪ ( 13 , 1) ∪ ( 10
1
, 1) can not cover (0, 1), since this
1
union is ( 10 , 1), and we know (from a homework assignment) that there is a
1
real number between 0 and 10 . It is not hard to write down a formal proof
that there is no finite subcollection of the collection {Un }n∈N which also covers
(0, 1). Indeed, the union of any finite collection of sets of the form ( n1 , 1) will be
some interval of the form ( 1t , 1), but we can always find real numbers between
0 and 1t .
3. A cover with an uncountable indexing set: For each x ∈ R, let Ux =

B 1 (x). Note that
1000 [
Ux = R.
x∈R
Here, there are uncountably many sets in the cover, the indexing set is the real
numbers!
On the other hand, this cover has a countable subcover obtained by taking
1
balls of radius 1000 with only rational centers. Since
[
Ux = R,
x∈Q
(prove it!), this is a countable subcover. On the other, hand, it is not too hard
to see that this cover has no finite subcover. (Why?)
We can consider a similar cover of [0, 1]. Note that

[
[0, 1] ⊂ Ux = R,
x∈Q
so these sets are an open cover of [0, 1]. However, if we let Λ be the subset of
0 1 2 999 1000
rational numbers 1000 , 1000 , 1000 , . . . , 1000 , 1000 , it is easy to check that also
{Ux }x∈Λ
covers [0, 1]. This is a finite subcover of our original cover.
Some sets are special with respect to covers. Some sets have the property that
every cover has a finite subcover. Such sets are called compact.
4
1.3 Compactness:
Definition: Let S be a subset of a topological space X. We say S is compact if
every open cover of S admits some finite subcover.
We will soon prove that a subset of R is compact if and only if it is closed and
bounded.

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Professor Smith Math 295 Lecture Notes

1 October 29: Compactness, Open Covers, and

1.2 Open Covers.

is an open cover of S if and only if

• Example: The one-set open cover {R} covers R

• Example: Let Un = (n, n + 2) where n ∈ Z. The collection {Un }n∈Z is an open

• Example: Let Un = (−n, n) with n ∈ N. The collection {Un }n∈Z is a nested

1. Example: Let Un = (− n2 , n2 ). Obviously

2. Example of a cover with no finite subcover: Let Un = ( n1 , 1). These sets,

3. A cover with an uncountable indexing set: For each x ∈ R, let Ux =

We can consider a similar cover of [0, 1]. Note that

covers [0, 1]. This is a finite subcover of our original cover.

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