This document is Jan Wigestrand's proof of the Tietze Extension Theorem from his home project in Advanced Real Analysis. It presents the theorem, which states that if A is a closed subset of a normal space X and f is a continuous function from A to the interval [a,b], then there exists a continuous function F from X to [a,b] such that F=f on A. The proof constructs a sequence of continuous functions that converge uniformly to a continuous extension F of f.
This document is Jan Wigestrand's proof of the Tietze Extension Theorem from his home project in Advanced Real Analysis. It presents the theorem, which states that if A is a closed subset of a normal space X and f is a continuous function from A to the interval [a,b], then there exists a continuous function F from X to [a,b] such that F=f on A. The proof constructs a sequence of continuous functions that converge uniformly to a continuous extension F of f.
This document is Jan Wigestrand's proof of the Tietze Extension Theorem from his home project in Advanced Real Analysis. It presents the theorem, which states that if A is a closed subset of a normal space X and f is a continuous function from A to the interval [a,b], then there exists a continuous function F from X to [a,b] such that F=f on A. The proof constructs a sequence of continuous functions that converge uniformly to a continuous extension F of f.
NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology>
Faculty of Information Technology, Mathematics and
Electrical Engineering> Department of Mathematical Sciences.
Home Project in Advanced Real Analysis
A Proof of the Tietze Extension
Theorem
by
Jan Wigestrand
English version 1.00
Trondheim, April 29, 2008.
The Tietze Extension Theorem. Let X be a normal space. If A is a closed subset of X and f ∈ C(A, [a, b]), there exists F ∈ C(X, [a, b]) such that F|A = f .
See [Folland,p122].
Proof. Since f is continuous on a closed interval [a, b] we can without loss
of generality replace [a, b] by [0, 1] (replace f by ( f − a)/(b − a), f = 0 ↔ f = a, f = 1 ↔ f = b). We will show that we can find F by using a sequence of continuous functions. By Urysohn’s lemma there exists continuous functions h n−1 i n−1 gn ∈ C X, 0, 23n where gn (Bn ) = 0, gn (Cn ) = 23n , Bn ∩ Cn = ∅ and Bn , Cn are closed subsets of A. n o Choose B1 , . . ., Bn , C1 , . . ., Cn in the following way B1 = x ∈ A | f ≤ 13 , n o 2n−1 n o n o n C1 = x ∈ A | f ≥ 32 , Bn = x ∈ A | f − n−1 Pn−1 = 2 P j=1 g j ≤ 3 n , Cn x ∈ A | f − j=1 g j ≥ 3 . The sets are closed subsets of A. Since A itself is closed the sets are closed in X. We also have Bn ∩ Cn = ∅. Let F = ∞ P n=1 gn . We have uniform convergence 2n−1 since per definition gn ≤ 3n . By proposition 4.13, see [Folland,p121], F is continuous. n Since 0 ≤ f − F ≤ 32 for all n, it follows that F = f on A.
References
Folland Gerald B., Real Analysis: Modern Techniques and Their Applications, 2nd ed., Wiley-Interscience, 1999.
Wigestrand Jan, A Proof of the Tietze Extension Theorem, Home Project in
Advanced Real Analysis, MA3105, NTNU, Trondheim, March 16, 2006, (in Norwegian). http://www.janwigestrand.com/d/wigestrand jan tietze MA3105.pdf