PART A TOPOLOGY COURSE: HT 2008

Lecture 10: Path-connected spaces

Definition 1. A path connecting two points x, y in a topological space X is a continuous map

p : [0, 1] → X with p(0) = x, p(1) = y.

Remark 2. If p : [0, 1] → X is a path then p ([0, 1]) is a connected set.

Definition 3. A topological space X is path-connected if any two points in X are connected by a

path in X .
A subset A ⊆ X is path-connected if with the subspace topology it satisfies the previous condition.
Conventionally the empty set is path-connected.

Example 4. (1) Given a continous function f : I → R, I ⊆ R interval, the graph Gf =

{(x, f (x)) | x ∈ I} is path connected. For instance take the function f : R → R , f (x) =
x sin x1 if x > 0, f (x) = 0 if x ≤ 0.
(2) Any normed vector space is path-connected.
(3) Any ball in a normed vector space is path-connected.

Proposition 5. Any path-connected space is connected.

The converse is in general not true.

Example 6. Let Gf be the graph of the function f : (0, ∞) → R , f (x) = sin x1 , that is the set
½µ ¶ ¾
1
Gf = x, sin |x>0 .
x
Clearly Gf is path-connected, hence connected.
Its closure Gf = Gf ∪ {0} × [−1, 1] is connected but not path-connected.

Remark 7. The example 6 also shows that A path-connected does not in general imply that A is
path-connected.

Nevertheless the converse of Proposition 5 is true in particular topological spaces, for open sets.
Proposition 8. A connected open subset U of a normed vector space is path-connected.

Remark 9. Proposition 8 without the hypothesis “U open” does not hold, as shown by the Example 6
( U = Gf is a subset of the normed vector space (R2 , k k) ).

Proposition 10. If f : X → Y is a continuous map of topological spaces X, Y and A ⊂ X is

path-connected then so is f (A) . (“The continuous image of a path-connected set is path-connected.”)