1

1.1

Introduction to Topological Manifolds

Connectedness and Compactness

Exercise 4.3 Suppose X is a connected topological space, and is an

equivalence relation on X such that every equivalence class is open. Show
that there is exactly one equivalence class, namely X itself.
Proof Let X be a connected topological space, and an equivalence relation on X such that every equivalence class is open. The equivalence relation
partitions X. Hence, if there is more than a single equivalence class, then
X can be written as the union of disjoint, nonempty, open subsets. Therefore, there can be only one equivalence class, which must be the entirety of
X.
Exercise 4.4 Prove that a topological space X is disconnected if and only
if there exists a nonconstant continuous function from X to the discrete space
{0, 1}.
Proof Let X be a disconnected topological space. So, X can be written
as the union of disjoint, nonempty, open subsets, say X = U V . Then the
function
f : X {0, 1},
(1)
defined so that f (U ) = 0, f (V ) = 1. Then f is clearly continuous and
nonconstant.
Suppose there exists a nonconstant continuous function, say f , from
X to the discrete space {0, 1}. Since f is continuous, the inverse image of
Exercise 4.13 (a) Every continuous image of a path-connected space is
path-connected.
Proof Let X be a path-connected topological space, and let f : X Y be
a continuous function. Let x, y f (X). Then, there exist p, q X such that
f (x) = p and f (y) = q. Since X is path-connected, there is a continuous
map : I X such that (0) = p and (1) = q, where I = [0, 1]. Then
f : I Y such that f (0) = f (p) = x and f (1) = f (q) = y. Moreover, since composition of functions preserves continuity, f is continuous
1

and thus f (X) is path-connected.

(b) Let X be a space, and let {B }A be a collection
of path-connected
S
subspaces of X with a point in common. Then A B is path-connected.
Proof
Let x0 be the point in common among all the B . Let p, q
S
B
A .