Paper 2, Section II, E

Analysis II | Part IB, 2012

Let f:RnRmf: \mathbb{R}^{n} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{m} be a mapping. Fix aRna \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 xa<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 xnax_{n} \rightarrow a.

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

Let EE and FF be subsets of Rn\mathbb{R}^{n} and Rm\mathbb{R}^{m} respectively. For f:RnRmf: \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 f1(F)f^{-1}(F) is closed whenever FF is closed, then ff is continuous.

(b) If ff is continuous, then f1(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 f1(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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