21/9/2017 topology: embedding - Mathematics Stack Exchange

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topology: embedding

Billingsley writes in his book convergence of probability measures: " If S can be embedded as an open set in a some complete metric space,
then it is topologically complete".

I have taken one course in analysis (I am not from maths background ) which covers chapters 1-6 and some parts of chapter 7, and I can make
nothing out of this statement. I guess he is looking for some sort of map?

(general-topology)

asked Sep 30 '13 at 7:03

user24367
590 3 18

Does he give a definition of "topologically complete"? The usual completeness is not a topological property. –
Vishal Gupta Sep 30 '13 at 7:14

Are you sure it is open set? – Vishal Gupta Sep 30 '13 at 7:16

rel link – user79193 Sep 30 '13 at 7:38

1 Answer

First just to handle some definitions:

By an embedding of a topological space X into a topological space Y we mean a (one-to-

one) function f : X → Y such that if you consider it as a mapping into f [X], the range of
f , then it is a homeomorphism onto this subspace of Y .

A topological space X is called topologically complete if there is a complete metric d on X

which yields the same open sets (i.e., the topology can be induced by a complete metric on
that same space).

So the meaning of this statement is essentially this

If S is a topological space which is homeomorphic to an open subspace of a complete metric

space Y , then the topology on S is induced by a complete metric (you can give S a complete
metric which yields the same open sets).

Actually, a stronger statement is also true:

If S is a topological space which is homeomorphic to a G subspace (a countable

δ

intersection of open sets) of a complete metric space Y , then the topology on S is induced
by a complete metric.

To give a bit of an example: Consider the open interval S = (0, 1) with the usual subspace
topology. As S is itself an open subspace of the real line R , it follows by the statement that S is
topologically complete. But we know that the usual metric on S is not complete: the Cauchy
sequence ⟨ ⟩1

n
n∈N does not converge to any point in S . However we can give S a different
metric -- namely

∣ 2πx − π 2πy − π ∣
′
d (x, y) = ∣ tan( ) − tan( )∣
∣ 2 2 ∣

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/509733/topology-embedding 1/2
21/9/2017 topology: embedding - Mathematics Stack Exchange
and show that this metric is both complete, and yields the same open sets. It is not too hard to
see that the sequence mentioned above is not Cauchy with respect to the d metric. ′

edited Sep 30 '13 at 7:25 answered Sep 30 '13 at 7:17

arjafi ♦
42.4k 5 48 97

what is the name of this result? i wanted to see the proof – user24367 Oct 1 '13 at 7:41

@user17523: I'm not sure if it is a named theorem, but it can be found in Kechris, Classical Descriptive Set
Theory (Theorem 3.11, p.17). It is closely related to Lavrentiev's Theorem which states that if A, B are
subspaces of complete metric spaces X, Y , respectively, and f : A → B is a homeomorphism between
these subspaces, then there are Gδ subsets A ⊆ G ⊆ X ,B ⊆ H ⊆ Y such that f may be extended to a
homeomorphism between G and H . – arjafi ♦ Oct 1 '13 at 8:12

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/509733/topology-embedding 2/2