6.

Open and closed sets

MAU22200 - Advanced Analysis

https://www.maths.tcd.ie/∼zaitsev/Adv-2020
Dmitri Zaitsev zaitsev@maths.tcd.ie

Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 6. Open and closed sets 1/1
Open subsets
The notion of an open subset is of fundamental importance.

Definition (interior points and open sets)

Let (X , d) be a metric space and A ⊂ X a subset.
1 A point a ∈ A is called interior if there exists an open ball Br (a) ⊂ A
for some r > 0. The set of all interior points is called the interior of A.
2 the subset A is called open if every a ∈ A is an interior point.

Examples (intervals)
In the interval (a, b) ⊂ R all points are interior, hence it is open.
Indeed, for every x ∈ (a, b), we can take Br (x) ⊂ (a, b) with
r = min{|x − a|, |x − b|} > 0.
In the interval [a, b) ⊂ R all points except a are interior, hence it is
not open. Indeed, there is no open ball Br (a) = (a − r , a + r ) with
r > 0 that is contained in [a, b).
Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 6. Open and closed sets 2/1
 Theorem (basic properties of open subsets)
1 In a metric space X , both empty set ∅ and X are open subsets.
2 Arbitrary unions of open subsets are open.
3 Finite intersections of open subsets are open.

Proof.
1 For the empty subset, the statement “every point is interior” is
formally true because there are no points. In X every point is interior
because any ball is a subset of X by definition.
S
2 Let U = α∈A Uα be a union with Uα ⊂ X open for all α ∈ A. Then
any x ∈ U belongs to some Uα (where α depends on x), and since
Uα is open, there exists an open ball Br (x) ⊂ Uα ⊂ U as needed.
3 Let U = U1 ∩ . . . ∩ Un be a finite intersection of open subsets and
x ∈ U. Then x ∈ Uj for each j, hence Brj (x) ⊂ Uj for some rj > 0,
and taking r := min(r1 , . . . , rn ) > 0, it follows that
Br (x) ⊂ Brj (x) ⊂ Uj for each j, and hence Br (x) ⊂ U as desired.

Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 6. Open and closed sets 3/1
Closed subsets
Definition (closed subsets)
A subset A ⊂ X is closed if and only if its complement X \ A is open.

Theorem (basic properties of closed subsets)

1 In a metric space X , both empty set ∅ and X are closed subsets.
2 Finite unions of closed subsets are closed.
3 Arbitrary intersections of closed subsets are closed.

Proof.
Direct consequence of basic properties of open subsets and De Morgan’s
laws X \ ∪α Aα = ∩α (X \ Aα ), X \ ∩α Aα = ∪α (X \ Aα ).

Example
The interval [a, b] is closed in R with the standard metric
d(x, y ) = |x − y |, as R \ [a, b] = (−∞, a) ∪ (b, +∞) is union of open sets.
Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 6. Open and closed sets 4/1
The closure of a subset
Not every subset is closed but every subset has a closure.
Definition (closure of a subset)
For a subset A in a metric space X , its closure A is the intersection of all
closed subsets containing A.

Lemma
(1) The closure A of any subset A is always closed.
(2) A subset A is closed if only if A = A.

Proof.
(1) Immediate since A is an intersection of closed sets.
(2) If a subset A is closed, A itself is among closed sets containing A,
from which A = A follows. Vice versa, assume A = A. Since A is
always closed by (1), also A = A must be closed as desired.

Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 6. Open and closed sets 5/1