4.I.2G

Topics in Analysis | Part II, 2006

(a) State the Baire category theorem, in its closed-sets version.

(b) For every n∈Nn \in \mathbb{N} let fnf_{n} be a continuous function from R\mathbb{R} to R\mathbb{R}, and let g(x)=1g(x)=1 when xx is rational and 0 otherwise. For each N∈NN \in \mathbb{N}, let

FN={x∈R:∀n⩾Nfn(x)⩽13 or fn(x)⩾23}.F_{N}=\left\{x \in \mathbb{R}: \forall n \geqslant N \quad f_{n}(x) \leqslant \frac{1}{3} \quad \text { or } \quad f_{n}(x) \geqslant \frac{2}{3}\right\} .

By applying the Baire category theorem, prove that the functions fnf_{n} cannot converge pointwise to gg. (That is, it is not the case that fn(x)→g(x)f_{n}(x) \rightarrow g(x) for every x∈Rx \in \mathbb{R}.)

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