Paper 2, Section II, E

Analysis II | Part IB, 2012

Let f:Rn→Rmf: \mathbb{R}^{n} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{m} be a mapping. Fix a∈Rna \in \mathbb{R}^{n} and prove that the following two statements are equivalent:

(i) Given ε>0\varepsilon>0 there is δ>0\delta>0 such that ∥f(x)−f(a)∥<ε\|f(x)-f(a)\|<\varepsilon whenever ∥x−a∥<δ\|x-a\|<\delta (we use the standard norm in Euclidean space).

(ii) f(xn)→f(a)f\left(x_{n}\right) \rightarrow f(a) for any sequence xn→ax_{n} \rightarrow a.

We say that ff is continuous if (i) (or equivalently (ii)) holds for every a∈Rna \in \mathbb{R}^{n}.

Let EE and FF be subsets of Rn\mathbb{R}^{n} and Rm\mathbb{R}^{m} respectively. For f:Rn→Rmf: \mathbb{R}^{n} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{m} as above, determine which of the following statements are always true and which may be false, giving a proof or a counterexample as appropriate.

(a) If f−1(F)f^{-1}(F) is closed whenever FF is closed, then ff is continuous.

(b) If ff is continuous, then f−1(F)f^{-1}(F) is closed whenever FF is closed.

(c) If ff is continuous, then f(E)f(E) is open whenever EE is open.

(d) If ff is continuous, then f(E)f(E) is bounded whenever EE is bounded.

(e) If ff is continuous and f−1(F)f^{-1}(F) is bounded whenever FF is bounded, then f(E)f(E) is closed whenever EE is closed.

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