SEMESTER 2 MATHEMATICS: PROBLEM SHEET 1: SOLUTIONS
1. True or false? (a) In the discrete topology Y = Y , for all Y X. (b) In the trivial topology Y = X, for all Y X. [Hint: is your answer always true?] (c) If a topological space X = A B, with A, B disjoint open subspaces, then one of A or B is empty. (d) Let f : X Y be a map between topological spaces. Suppose that, whenever F is closed in X, the image f (F ) is closed in Y . Then, whenever U is open in X, f (U ) is open in Y . Solution: (a) True: every subspace is closed. (b)False: = , but true for non-empty subspaces. (c) False: e.g. X = {0, 1} with the discrete topology, A = {0}, B = {1}. (d) False: remember that f (U c ) 6= (f (U ))c (its f (U c ) = (f! (U ))c ). This statement does hold whenever f is bijective. Options for a counterexample include: () any map between cofinite topological spaces preserves closed, i.e. finite, subspaces under direct image, but not necessarily open ones. () Let be the Sierpi nski space and define f : by f (x) = 0 for all x . Note that the converse is not true either: a map that preserves open subspaces under direct image does not necessarily preserve closed subspaces. 2. Show that, if X is a topological space and Y X, then X \ Y = X \ Y and X \ Y = (X \ Y ) . Solution: X \Y is closed and contains X \Y (because Y is open and Y Y ). Therefore X \ Y X \ Y . On the other hand, X \ (X \ Y ) = Y , and X \ X \ Y is open and contained in Y , so it is contained in Y . Therefore X \ X \ Y X \ (X \ Y ), so, taking complements, X \ Y X \ Y . 3. Recall that N is a neighbourhood of x X if there is U TX with x U N . Prove the following properties. (a) If N is a neighbourhood of x and N N 0 , then N 0 is a neighbourhood of x. (b) If N1 and N2 are neighbourhoods of x, then so is N1 N2 . (c) x Y if and only if every neighbourhood of x intersects Y . Solution: (a) If x U N with U open, then x U N 0 . Thus N 0 is a neighbourhood of x.
(b) If x U1 N1 and x U2 N2 with U1 , U2 open, then x U1 U2 N1 N2
and U1 U2 is open because it is th intersection of two open sets. Thus N1 N2 is a neighbourhood of x. (c) One option is to prove the contrapositive: x / Y if and only if x X \ Y = (X \ Y ) , i.e. there is an open U X such that x U and U X \ Y . Alternatively, tackle the problem head-on. For this, x Y if and only if Y Z implies x Z for each closed set Z X. But that says x U Y U 6= for each closed set U X, i.e. every open neighbourhood of x intersects Y . However, every neighbourhood of x contains an open neighbourhood of x, so every neighbourhood of x meets Y if and only if every open neighbourhood of x does. 4. Let Y be a subspace of a topological space X. Show that subspace F Y is closed in Y if and only F = Y E for some closed subspace E X. Deduce that the closure of any subspace Z Y in Y is the intersection of Y with the closure of Z in X. Solution: Firstly, Z closed in Y Y \ Z open in Y Y \ Z = Y U for some U open in X Z = Y (X \ U ) for some U open in X Z = Y E, for some E closed in X. The third equivalence is justified because y Y (y 6 Z y U ) is equivalent to y Y (y Z y 6 U ). But then, for any Z Y , note that Z Y W for W X if and only if Z W . Therefore
Z (in Y ) =
\ ZW CY
W =
(Y W ) = Y
ZW CX
W = Y Z (in X),
ZW CX
where CX and CY are the collections of all closed subsets in X and Y .
5. Let f : X Y be a map of topological spaces. Show that f is continuous if and only if for every W X, f (W ) f (W ). [Hint: use the equivalent definition of continuity that for any Z Y , f (Z) f (Z), and a relationship between inverse and direct image from Sheet 0.] Solution: First, suppose that f is continuous, so that for Z Y , f (Z) f (Z), i.e., f (f (Z)) Z, and put Z = f (W ), noting that R f (f (W )), so that f (W ) f (f (f (W )) f (W ). Conversely if the stated property holds for all W X, consider W = f (Z), and use f (f (Z)) Z.
Can you formulate a characterisation of continuity using f! (N 0 )?
6. (Kuratowskis closure axioms.) Let X be a topological space with closure operation Y 7 Y . (a) Show that Y = Y if and only if Y is closed. (b) Show that, for all A, B X: (K1) A A;
(K2) A = A; (K3) A B = A B; (K4) = ; (K5) if A B then A B. (c) Show that (K3) implies (K5). [Hint: A B A B = B.] (d) Show that any operation Y 7 Y satisfying axioms (K1)(K4) is the closure operation of some topology on X. Solution: (a) Y is closed, so if Y = Y then Y is closed; conversely, if Y is closed then it is certainly the smallest closed subspace containing Y , so Y = Y . (b) (K1) A is an intersection of sets containing A, so it contains A. (K2) if Y = A, then Y is closed and so Y = Y , by (a). (K3) A B is closed as it is the intersection of closed sets. If F is any closed set with A B F then A F , so A F and B F , so B F . Hence A B F and so A B is the smallest closed set containing A B. (K4) is closed, so this follows from (a). (K5) A B B. Hence B is a closed set which contains A, so A B. c) If A B then B = A B. Hence, by (K3), B = A B and so A B. (d) Given the operation Y 7 Y , define a set C = {F X : F = F }. We show first that this satisfies the properties of a collection of closed sets and so defines a topology on X. (K4) implies that C, while (K1) implies that X = X since this is the only set which contains X: hence X C. If A, B C, then A B = A B by (K3), but that is = A B so A B C. T If A C for I and F = I A , then for all I we have F A so F A = A . T Hence F I A = F . But F F , by (K1), so F = F and so F C. It remains to show that the topology defined by C has the original operation as its closure operation. To see this observe that (K2) implies that Y C for all Y , while for any other
set F C with Y F , we have Y F = F by (K5). Hence Y is the smallest set in C
that contains Y and so is the closure in this topology. Moral: a closure operation is another way of defining the notion of a topological space. Can you formulate yet another definition, using the idea of an interior operation N 7 N ? GKS, 8/2/16