ASSIGNMENT 1

James King | u5349016

18/03/2016

Excercise 1
First, we assume that the space X is Hausdorff and we choose a point (x, y)
in the compliment of the diagonal D. Since x 6= y, there must be disjoint open
neighbourhoods U and V of x and y, respectively.
Since X X has been given the product topology, it follows that U V is an
open neighbourhood of (x, y) in X X and it cannot intersect D (doing so would
give U and V a nonempty intercection). Therefore, the point (x, y) is in the interior
of the compliment of D
The point (x, y) was arbitrary, so the same reasoning applies to each point of
Dc , making Dc open.
Therefore the diagonal D is closed.
We now show the converse. Suppose that D is closed and x, y X with x 6= y.
(x, y) is not a point in D, so there must be a basic open neighbourhood B contained
inside the compliment of D. X X has been given the product topology, so B is
of the form U V , where U and V are neighbourhoods of x and y respectively.
U V does not intersect D, so the two neighbourhoods must be disjoint.
This construction works for all arbitrary points x and y in X with x 6= y, so each
x, y X with x 6= y have disjoint open neighbourhoods Ux and Uy .
Therefore X is Hausdorff. 

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JAMES KING | U5349016

Excercise 2
We check that T is indeed a topology by verifying that it is closed under finite
intersections and unions, and contains both and R.
i) and R are both open in R with regard to the order topology on R and we
have that both ( Q) = and R (R Q) = R. Therefore, both and R are
in the topology T .
ii) Unions:
Let A be a set and {G : A} be a subset of T with = U (V Q)
where both U and V are open in R with regard to the order topology:
[

G =

U (V Q)

!
=

[
A

V Q .

The order topology on R is closed under unions, so both

are open in it.S
Therefore, A G is in T .

U and

iii) Finite intersections:

We show that a set S is closed under finite intersection if it is closed under
binary intersection. If S1 , S2 , . . . , Sn are a finite collection of sets then we may
express S1 S2 Sn as (. . . ((S1 S2 ) S3 ) Sn1 ) Sn . Now, we can find
the intersection of all of these sets by first evaluating S1 S2 , then (S1 S2 ) S3 ,
and going on until we find the intersection of all n sets. Using this algorithm, we
see that if a family S of sets is closed under binary intersection then it is also closed
under finite intersection.
We now show that T is closed under binary intersection:
Let A, B T with A = A1 (A2 Q) and B = B1 (B2 Q):




A B = A1 (A2 Q) B1 (B2 Q)






= (A1 B1 ) A1 (B2 Q) B1 (A2 Q) (A2 Q) (B2 Q)




= (A1 B1 ) (A1 B2 ) (B1 A2 ) (A2 B2 ) Q .
The order topology on R is closed under finite union and intersection, so both
A1 B1 and (A1 B2 ) (B1 A2 ) (A2 B2 ) are open in it.
Therefore, A B is an element of T .
We now show that R, equipped with T is Hausdorff, yet not regular:
i) The standard topology on R is the topology corresponding to the usual the
usual metric on R. Therefore, R equipped with the standard metric is a Hausdorff

ASSIGNMENT 1

space. Now, suppose that we are given points x, y R with x 6= y. By the Hausdorff
property of R with the standard topology, there are disjoint neighbourhoods Ux and
Uy of x and y in the standard topology and by the basic properties of set operations
we have U = U (U Q) and V = V (V Q). Therefore Ux and Uy are also disjoint
neighbourhoods of x and y in T . This construction works for all arbitrary points x
and y in X with x 6= y, so each such pair must have disjoint open neighbourhoods
U and U .Therefore, R equipped with the topology T is Hausdorff.
ii) Now, to prove that R equipped with T is not regular, we show that the
only open set in the topology containing the closed set Qc is R, which shows that
any rational point on the line and Qc cannot have disjoint open neighbourhoods.
Suppose O be an open set with respect to T containing Qc of the form O =
U (V Q) with both U and V open with respect to the standard topology. Now,
(V Q) is a subset of the rational numbers, so it cannot contain any members of
Qc , so Q must be entirely contained in U . The only open set with this property is
the entire line R, so U is the real line. Therefore, since O is a subset of the real
line and contains U , O must also be the entire real line. 

JAMES KING | U5349016

Excercise 3
Part i.
Suppose that x is a member of the boundary of E. Every neighbourhood of x
intersects both E and its compliment. x is a limit point of E, since every neighbourhood of x intersects E, yet it cannot be in the interior of E because no neighbourhood is contained entirely within E. Therefore, x is a member of E E .
Now, suppose that x is a member of the closure of E and not a member of
its interior. As part of the definition of the closure, every neighbourhood of x
intersects E, and since x is not in the interior, each neighbourhood of x must
contain an element not in E. Therefore, every neighbourhood of x must intersect
both E and the compliment of E. Therefore x is a member of E.
We have shown that x is a member of E if and only if x is in E E .Therefore,
E = E E .
Part ii.
As part of the definition of the compliment, for any subset E of X, we have
E E c = X.
An elementary property of the closure is that for any subset A of X, wehaveA A.
Therefore, we have that
E E c = X.
As we found in part i, E = E E , so
E = E E.
We showed this for any arbitrary set, so we also have

E c = (E c ) (E c ) .
Therefore, we have

X = E E (E c ) E c .
The roles of E and its compliment in the definition of the boundary of E are
interchangeable, so the boundary of E is equal to the boundary of its compliment.
Therefore,

X = E E (E c ) .
The sets E and (E c ) are disjoint to E by the fact that E is the compliment of
E and (E c ) in E and E c respectively, and the two sets E and (E c ) are disjoint
because E is a subset of E and (E c ) is a subset of E c . Therefore, the three sets
are pairwise disjoint, so we may express X as

X = E t E t (E c ) .

ASSIGNMENT 1

Excercise 4
Part 1.
Given x, y [0, 1], we define the relationship by
xy

if and only if x y Q.

i) - Reflexivity
Suppose x is a real number. x x = 0, and 0 is a rational number, so x x Q.
Therefore x y.
ii) - Symmetry
Suppose that x and y are real numbers where x y. x y = (x y) and Q is
a subfield of R, so y x is also rational. Therefore
y x.
iii) - Transitivity
Suppose that x, y and z are real numbers with x y and y z. x z =
(x y) + (y z) and Q is a subfield of R, so x z is rational. Therefore
x z.
is reflexive, symmetric and transitive, so it is an equivalence relation on R. 
Part 2.
The axiom of choice states
S that, for any given any family of nonempty sets F,
there is a function c : F F such that for each F in F, c(F ) is in F .
Using the equivalence relation from part i, we may partition R into the equivalence classes of . Now, using the axiom of choice, we define X to be a set
containing exactly one element from each equivalence class and whose rational element is 0. Now, our choice of 0 as the rational member of X makes the problem
simpler. Suppose we have some real number r. r is a member of some equivalence
class of , so there must be some x in X such that r x is rational. Choose q to
be this difference, so that r = q + x, r is a member of q + X. Therefore, the sets of
the form q + X cover R. Each of these sets are subsets of R,
[
R=
(q + X).
qQ

To show that each q + X is disjoint to the the others, suppose that there are two
rational numbers q1 and q2 such that q1 + X and q2 + X intersect at some point y.
As part of our hypothesis we have that
y = q1 + x1
and y = q2 + x2
for some x1 and x2 in X. Using this representation, we see that x1 = q2 q1 , so
x1 x2 . Since we chose to have exactly one element of each equivalence class of
in X, so x1 = x2 . Substituting this back into the previous equation, we see that
q1 = q2 . Therefore, the family {q + X}qQ is pairwise disjoint. Therefore,
G
R=
(q + X). 
qQ

JAMES KING | U5349016

Part 3.
Let B be the collection of sets of the form q + X for q Q, along with the empty
set. This collection is closed under finite intersection, as it is pairwise disjoint and
. Therefore, it has the structure of a base for a topology. Each q + X is open in
this topology as they are members of the base and R is the disjoint union of all
such sets, so R is the union of disjoint open sets. R is partitioned by the collection
of all the q + X, so
[
Xc =
(q + X).
qQ\{0}

The compliment of X is seen to be the union of open sets, so it is open too.

Therefore, we have the pair X and X c of disjoint open sets that cover R, so it is
disconnected. 

ASSIGNMENT 1

Exercise 5
Part 1.
For our given sets and functions, we define (f, g) : x Y Y to be the function
sending each x in X to the elements (f (x), g(x)) in Y Y . (f, g) is continuous if
and only if the inverse image of each basic open set of the topology of Y Y is
open in X. Suppose we give Y Y the product topology, so it has as a basis all
sets of the form U V where both U and V are open in Y . Suppose we are given
one of these basic open sets, U V , of Y Y :
(f, g)1 (U V ) = f 1 (U ) g 1 (V ).
Now, since both f and g are continuous both f 1 (U ) and g 1 (V ) are open in X,
so their intersection (f, g)1 (U V ) is open too. Therefore, (f, g) is continuous.
Let D be the diagonal in Y Y defined in exercise 1. Y is a Hausdorff space, so
D is closed in Y . The set
{x X : f (x) = g(x)}
is the inverse image of D under (f, g), and (f, g) is continuous so it is closed.
Part 2.
Suppose f = g on a dense subset E of X and let F be the set of all values x
for which f (x) = g(x). E is a subset of F , so E is a subset of F . As given by our
hypothesis, E is dense, and by Part 1, F is closed, so E = X and F = F . Therefore,
we have that
X F,
so f (x) = g(x) for all x in X.

JAMES KING | U5349016

Excercise 6
T is defined to be the collection of subsets of R containing 0, and the empty set.
This is indeed a topology, as both X and are in T and it is closed under arbitrary
intersection and union.
Part i.
Suppose that x is a real number and define
Bx = {0, x}.
Bx contains x and 0, so it is an open neighbourhood of x. Moreover, if U is an
open neighbourhood of x then U contains both x and 0. Therefore, the set {Bx }
is a base for the topology at x. {Bx } is finite, so it is countable. Therefore, each x
in R has a countable base for the topology at x, so T is first countable.
Now, let B be the set of all Bx for x in R. B is a basis for the topology, as every
subset S of R may be expressed as
[
S=
Bx
sS

and the intersect of two distinct elements of B is {0}, which is equal to B0 . Moreover, B has no countable subbase, because if we take any countable subset of B
then the union of this family must be must be countable because each Bx contains
at most two members. Therefore, T cannot be second countable. 
Part ii.
a) R must be connected, as every nonempty open set contains 0 so there can be
no nonempty disjoint open sets in T , let alone two that cover R.
b) Let x be a member of R. By the hypothesis, every open neighbourhood of x
must contain 0, so x is a limit point of {0}. This applies to all x in R, so every real
number must be a limit point of {0}. Therefore
{0} = R.
{0} is finite, hence it is countable. Therefore, T is separable, with {0} being its
countable dense subset.
c) T cannot be compact, because B as defined in part i is an open cover of R,
yet the union of any finite subset of it must be finite because each member is finite.
Therefore, the open cover B has no finite subcover of R, so T cannot be compact.

Part iii.
Suppose that Tst is the standard topology on R, and the function f : (R, T )
(R, Tst ) is continuous. For each x in R, the set {x} is closed with regard to the
standard topology. Let us define the set F by


F = f 1 {f (0)} .
{f (y)} is a closed set with regard to the standard topology for all y, so F must be a
closed set with regard to T . By definition, F contains 0, so 0 cannot be a member
of F c . The only open set that does not contain 0 is the empty set, so F c =
and thus F = R. Therefore, f sends every real number to the element f (0). From
this we can say that every continuous map (R, T ) (R, Tst ) is a constant function
determined by the element (f (0)) to which we send R:
C ((R, T ), (R, Tstd )) = {f : R R | f is a constant function}