Metric And Topological Spaces
Metric And Topological Spaces
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Paper 1, Section II, G
commentConsider the set of sequences of integers
Define
for two sequences . Let
where, as usual, we adopt the convention that .
(a) Prove that defines a metric on .
(b) What does it mean for a metric space to be complete? Prove that is complete.
(c) Is path connected? Justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section I, G
comment(a) Let be a continuous surjection of topological spaces. Prove that, if is connected, then is also connected.
(b) Let be a continuous map. Deduce from part (a) that, for every between and , there is such that . [You may not assume the Intermediate Value Theorem, but you may use the fact that suprema exist in .]
Paper 3, Section I,
commentLet be a metric space.
(a) What does it mean for to be compact? What does it mean for to be sequentially compact?
(b) Prove that if is compact then is sequentially compact.
Paper 4, Section II, G
comment(a) Define the subspace, quotient and product topologies.
(b) Let be a compact topological space and a Hausdorff topological space. Prove that a continuous bijection is a homeomorphism.
(c) Let , equipped with the product topology. Let be the smallest equivalence relation on such that and , for all . Let
equipped with the subspace topology from . Prove that and are homeomorphic.
[You may assume without proof that is compact.]
Paper 1, Section II, E
commentWhat does it mean to say that a topological space is compact? Prove directly from the definition that is compact. Hence show that the unit circle is compact, proving any results that you use. [You may use without proof the continuity of standard functions.]
The set has a topology for which the closed sets are the empty set and the finite unions of vector subspaces. Let denote the set with the subspace topology induced by . By considering the subspace topology on , or otherwise, show that is compact.
Paper 2, Section I, E
commentWhat does it mean to say that is a metric on a set ? What does it mean to say that a subset of is open with respect to the metric ? Show that the collection of subsets of that are open with respect to satisfies the axioms of a topology.
For , the set of continuous functions , show that the metrics
give different topologies.
Paper 3, Section I,
commentWhat does it mean to say that a topological space is connected? If is a topological space and , show that there is a connected subspace of so that if is any other connected subspace containing then .
Show that the sets partition .
Paper 4, Section II, E
commentLet and for each let
Prove that the set of unions of the sets forms a topology on .
Prove or disprove each of the following:
(i) is Hausdorff;
(ii) is compact.
If and are topological spaces, is the union of closed subspaces and , and is a function such that both and are continuous, show that is continuous. Hence show that is path-connected.
Paper 1, Section II, E
commentConsider and with their usual Euclidean topologies.
(a) Show that a non-empty subset of is connected if and only if it is an interval. Find a compact subset for which has infinitely many connected components.
(b) Let be a countable subset of . Show that is path-connected. Deduce that is not homeomorphic to .
Paper 2, Section I, E
commentLet be a function between metric spaces.
(a) Give the definition for to be continuous. Show that is continuous if and only if is an open subset of for each open subset of .
(b) Give an example of such that is not continuous but is an open subset of for every open subset of .
Paper 3, Section I,
commentLet and be topological spaces.
(a) Define what is meant by the product topology on . Define the projection maps and and show they are continuous.
(b) Consider in . Show that is Hausdorff if and only if is a closed subset of in the product topology.
Paper 4, Section II, E
commentLet be a continuous map between topological spaces.
(a) Assume is compact and that is a closed subset. Prove that and are both compact.
(b) Suppose that
(i) is compact for each , and
(ii) if is any closed subset of , then is a closed subset of .
Show that if is compact, then is compact.
Hint: Given an open cover , find a finite subcover, say , for each ; use closedness of and property (ii) to produce an open cover of .]
Paper 1, Section II, E
commentLet be a prime number. Define what is meant by the -adic metric on . Show that for we have
Show that the sequence , where , converges to some element in (D.
For define . Show that if and if , then
Let and let be the open ball with centre and radius , with respect to the metric . Show that is a closed subset of with respect to the topology induced by .
Paper 2, Section I, E
commentConsider and with their usual topologies.
(a) Show that compact subsets of a Hausdorff topological space are closed. Show that compact subsets of are closed and bounded.
(b) Show that there exists a complete metric space admitting a surjective continuous map .
Paper 3, Section I,
commentLet be a topological space and be a subset. A limit point of is a point such that any open neighbourhood of intersects . Show that is closed if and only if it contains all its limit points. Explain what is meant by the interior Int and the closure of . Show that if is connected, then is connected.
Paper 4, Section II, E
comment(a) Let be a topological space. Define what is meant by a quotient of and describe the quotient topology on the quotient space. Give an example in which is Hausdorff but the quotient space is not Hausdorff.
(b) Let be the 2-dimensional torus considered as the quotient , and let be the quotient map.
(i) Let be the open ball in with centre and radius . Show that is an open subset of and show that has infinitely many connected components. Show each connected component is homeomorphic to .
(ii) Let be an irrational number and let be the line given by the equation . Show that is dense in but .
Paper 1, Section II, E
commentGive the definition of a metric on a set and explain how this defines a topology on .
Suppose is a metric space and is an open set in . Let and such that the open ball and . Prove that .
Explain what it means (i) for a set to be dense in , (ii) to say is a base for a topology .
Prove that any metric space which contains a countable dense set has a countable basis.
Paper 2, Section I,
commentLet and be topological spaces and a continuous map. Suppose is a subset of such that is closed (where denotes the closure of ). Prove that
Give an example where and are as above but is not closed.
Paper 3, Section I,
commentDefine what it means for a topological space to be (i) connected (ii) path-connected.
Prove that any path-connected space is connected. [You may assume the interval is connected.
Give a counterexample (without justification) to the converse statement.
Paper 4, Section II, E
commentExplain what it means for a metric space to be (i) compact, (ii) sequentially compact. Prove that a compact metric space is sequentially compact, stating clearly any results that you use.
Let be a compact metric space and suppose satisfies for all . Prove that is surjective, stating clearly any results that you use. [Hint: Consider the sequence for .]
Give an example to show that the result does not hold if is not compact.
Paper 1, Section II, E
commentDefine what it means for a topological space to be compact. Define what it means for a topological space to be Hausdorff.
Prove that a compact subspace of a Hausdorff space is closed. Hence prove that if and are compact subspaces of a Hausdorff space then is compact.
A subset of is open in the cocountable topology if is empty or its complement in is countable. Is Hausdorff in the cocountable topology? Which subsets of are compact in the cocountable topology?
Paper 2, Section , E
commentLet and be topological spaces. What does it mean to say that a function is continuous?
Are the following statements true or false? Give proofs or counterexamples.
(i) Every continuous function is an open map, i.e. if is open in then is open in .
(ii) If is continuous and bijective then is a homeomorphism.
(iii) If is continuous, open and bijective then is a homeomorphism.
Paper 3, Section I, E
commentSuppose is a metric space. Do the following necessarily define a metric on ? Give proofs or counterexamples.
(i) for some constant , for all .
(ii) for all .
(iii) for all .
Paper 4, Section II, E
commentExplain what it means for a metric space to be complete.
Let be a metric space. We say the subsets of , with , form a descending sequence in if .
Prove that the metric space is complete if and only if any descending sequence of non-empty closed subsets of , such that the diameters of the subsets converge to zero, has an intersection that is non-empty.
[Recall that the diameter of a set is the supremum of the set :
Give examples of
(i) a metric space , and a descending sequence of non-empty closed subsets of , with converging to 0 but .
(ii) a descending sequence of non-empty sets in with converging to 0 but .
(iii) a descending sequence of non-empty closed sets in with .
Paper 1, Section II, G
commentConsider the sphere , a subset of , as a subspace of with the Euclidean metric.
(i) Show that is compact and Hausdorff as a topological space.
(ii) Let be the quotient set with respect to the equivalence relation identifying the antipodes, i.e.
Show that is compact and Hausdorff with respect to the quotient topology.
Paper 2, Section I, G
commentLet be a topological space. Prove or disprove the following statements.
(i) If is discrete, then is compact if and only if it is a finite set.
(ii) If is a subspace of and are both compact, then is closed in .
Paper 3, Section I, G
commentLet be a metric space with the metric .
(i) Show that if is compact as a topological space, then is complete.
(ii) Show that the completeness of is not a topological property, i.e. give an example of two metrics on a set , such that the associated topologies are the same, but is complete and is not.
Paper 4, Section II, G
commentLet be a topological space. A connected component of means an equivalence class with respect to the equivalence relation on defined as:
(i) Show that every connected component is a connected and closed subset of .
(ii) If are topological spaces and is the product space, show that every connected component of is a direct product of connected components of and .
Paper 1, Section II, F
commentA topological space is said to be normal if each point of is a closed subset of and for each pair of closed sets with there are open sets so that and . In this case we say that the separate the .
Show that a compact Hausdorff space is normal. [Hint: first consider the case where is a point.]
For we define an equivalence relation on by for all , for . If and are pairwise disjoint closed subsets of a normal space , show that and may be separated by open subsets and such that . Deduce that the quotient space is also normal.
Paper 2, Section I,
commentFor each case below, determine whether the given metrics and induce the same topology on . Justify your answers.
Paper 3, Section I,
commentDefine the notion of a connected component of a space .
If are connected subsets of such that , show that is connected.
Prove that any point is contained in a unique connected component.
Let consist of the points . What are the connected components of ?
Paper 4, Section II, F
commentSuppose and are topological spaces. Define the product topology on . Let be the projection. Show that a map is continuous if and only if and are continuous.
Prove that if and are connected, then is connected.
Let be the topological space whose underlying set is , and whose open sets are of the form for , along with the empty set and the whole space. Describe the open sets in . Are the maps defined by and continuous? Justify your answers.
Paper 1, Section II, G
commentLet be a metric space with the distance function . For a subset of , its diameter is defined as .
Show that, if is compact and is an open covering of , then there exists an such that every subset with is contained in some .
Paper 2, Section I, 4G
comment(i) Let . For , let
( is the usual Euclidean metric on .) Show that is a metric on and that the two metrics give rise to the same topology on .
(ii) Give an example of a topology on , different from the one in (i), whose induced topology (subspace topology) on the -axis is the usual topology (the one defined by the metric . Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section I, 3G
commentLet be topological spaces, and suppose is Hausdorff.
(i) Let be two continuous maps. Show that the set
is a closed subset of .
(ii) Let be a dense subset of . Show that a continuous map is determined by its restriction to .
Paper 4, Section II, 13G
commentLet be topological spaces and their product set. Let be the projection map.
(i) Define the product topology on . Prove that if a subset is open then is open in .
(ii) Give an example of and a closed set such that is not closed.
(iii) When is compact, show that if a subset is closed then is closed
Paper 1, Section II, H
commentLet and be continuous maps of topological spaces with .
(1) Suppose that (i) is path-connected, and (ii) for every , its inverse image is path-connected. Prove that is path-connected.
(2) Prove the same statement when "path-connected" is everywhere replaced by "connected".
Paper 2, Section I, H
commentOn the set of rational numbers, the 3 -adic metric is defined as follows: for , define and , where is the integer satisfying where is a rational number whose denominator and numerator are both prime to 3 .
(1) Show that this is indeed a metric on .
(2) Show that in , we have as while as . Let be the usual metric on . Show that neither the identity map nor its inverse is continuous.
Paper 3, Section I, H
commentLet be a topological space and be a set. Let be a surjection. The quotient topology on is defined as follows: a subset is open if and only if is open in .
(1) Show that this does indeed define a topology on , and show that is continuous when we endow with this topology.
(2) Let be another topological space and be a map. Show that is continuous if and only if is continuous.
Paper 4, Section II, H
comment(1) Prove that if is a compact topological space, then a closed subset of endowed with the subspace topology is compact.
(2) Consider the following equivalence relation on :
Let be the quotient space endowed with the quotient topology, and let be the canonical surjection mapping each element to its equivalence class. Let
(i) Show that is compact.
(ii) Assuming that is dense in , show that is bijective but not homeomorphic.
Paper 1, Section II, F
commentGiven a function between metric spaces, we write for the subset of
(i) If is continuous, show that is closed in .
(ii) If is compact and is closed in , show that is continuous.
(iii) Give an example of a function such that is closed but is not continuous.
Paper 2, Section I,
commentExplain what is meant by a Hausdorff (topological) space, and prove that every compact subset of a Hausdorff space is closed.
Let be an uncountable set, and consider the topology on defined by
Is Hausdorff? Is every compact subset of closed? Justify your answers.
Paper 3, Section I, F
commentAre the following statements true or false? Give brief justifications for your answers.
(i) If is a connected open subset of for some , then is path-connected.
(ii) A cartesian product of two connected spaces is connected.
(iii) If is a Hausdorff space and the only connected subsets of are singletons , then is discrete.
Paper 4, Section II, F
commentA nonempty subset of a topological space is called irreducible if, whenever we have open sets and such that and are nonempty, then we also have . Show that the closure of an irreducible set is irreducible, and deduce that the closure of any singleton set is irreducible.
is said to be a sober topological space if, for any irreducible closed , there is a unique such that . Show that any Hausdorff space is sober, but that an infinite set with the cofinite topology is not sober.
Given an arbitrary topological space , let denote the set of all irreducible closed subsets of , and for each let
Show that the sets form a topology on , and that the mapping is a bijection from to . Deduce that ) is sober. [Hint: consider the complement of an irreducible closed subset of .]
commentExplain what it means for a topological space to be connected.
Are the following subspaces of the unit square connected? Justify your answers.
(a) , and .
(b) or and .
1.II.12F
commentWrite down the definition of a topology on a set .
For each of the following families of subsets of , determine whether is a topology on . In the cases where the answer is 'yes', determine also whether is a Hausdorff space and whether it is compact.
(a) : either is finite or .
(b) : either is finite or .
(c) : there exists such that, for all .
(d) : for all , there exists such that .
2.I.4F
commentStating carefully any results on compactness which you use, show that if is a compact space, is a Hausdorff space and is bijective and continuous, then is a homeomorphism.
Hence or otherwise show that the unit circle is homeomorphic to the quotient space , where is the equivalence relation defined by
4.II.14F
commentExplain what is meant by a base for a topology. Illustrate your definition by describing bases for the topology induced by a metric on a set, and for the product topology on the cartesian product of two topological spaces.
A topological space is said to be separable if there is a countable subset which is dense, i.e. such that for every nonempty . Show that a product of two separable spaces is separable. Show also that a metric space is separable if and only if its topology has a countable base, and deduce that every subspace of a separable metric space is separable.
Now let with the topology having as a base the set of all half-open intervals
with . Show that is separable, but that the subspace of is not separable.
[You may assume standard results on countability.]
1.II.12A
commentLet and be topological spaces. Define the product topology on and show that if and are Hausdorff then so is .
Show that the following statements are equivalent.
(i) is a Hausdorff space.
(ii) The diagonal is a closed subset of , in the product topology.
(iii) For any topological space and any continuous maps , the set is closed in .
2.I.4A
commentAre the following statements true or false? Give a proof or a counterexample as appropriate.
(i) If is a continuous map of topological spaces and is compact then is compact.
(ii) If is a continuous map of topological spaces and is compact then is compact.
(iii) If a metric space is complete and a metric space is homeomorphic to then is complete.
3.I.4A
comment(a) Let be a connected topological space such that each point of has a neighbourhood homeomorphic to . Prove that is path-connected.
(b) Let denote the topology on , such that the open sets are , the empty set, and all the sets , for . Prove that any continuous map from the topological space to the Euclidean is constant.
4.II.14A
comment(a) For a subset of a topological space , define the closure cl of . Let be a map to a topological space . Prove that is continuous if and only if , for each .
(b) Let be a metric space. A subset of is called dense in if the closure of is equal to .
Prove that if a metric space is compact then it has a countable subset which is dense in .
1.II.12F
comment(i) Define the product topology on for topological spaces and , proving that your definition does define a topology.
(ii) Let be the logarithmic spiral defined in polar coordinates by , where . Show that (with the subspace topology from ) is homeomorphic to the real line.
2.I.4F
commentWhich of the following subspaces of Euclidean space are connected? Justify your answers (i) ; (ii) ; (iii) .
3.I.4F
commentWhich of the following are topological spaces? Justify your answers.
(i) The set of the integers, with a subset of called "open" when is either finite or the whole set ;
(ii) The set of the integers, with a subset of called "open" when, for each element and every even integer is also in
4.II.14F
comment(a) Show that every compact subset of a Hausdorff topological space is closed.
(b) Let be a compact metric space. For a closed subset of and any point of , show that there is a point in with
Suppose that for every and in there is a point in with and . Show that is connected.
1.II.12A
commentSuppose that and are metric spaces. Show that the definition
defines a metric on the product , under which the projection map is continuous.
If is compact, show that every sequence in has a subsequence converging to a point of . Deduce that the projection map then has the property that, for any closed subset , the image is closed in . Give an example to show that this fails if is not assumed compact.
2.I.4A
commentLet be a topological space. Suppose that are connected subsets of with non-empty for all . Prove that
is connected. If each is path-connected, prove that is path-connected.
3.I.4A
commentShow that a topology is determined on the real line by specifying that a nonempty subset is open if and only if it is a union of half-open intervals , where are real numbers. Determine whether is Hausdorff.
Let denote the cofinite topology on (that is, a non-empty subset is open if and only if its complement is finite). Prove that the identity map induces a continuous .
4.II.14A
commentLet be a metric space, and a non-empty closed subset of . For , set
Prove that is a continuous function of , and that it is strictly positive for .
A topological space is called normal if for any pair of disjoint closed subsets , there exist disjoint open subsets . By considering the function
or otherwise, deduce that any metric space is normal.
Suppose now that is a normal topological space, and that are disjoint closed subsets in . Prove that there exist open subsets , whose closures are disjoint. In the case when with the standard metric topology, and , find explicit open subsets with the above property.