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Cantor Characterization

This document characterizes and proves that any compact, second countable, zero dimensional, dense in itself, Hausdorff topological space is homeomorphic to the Cantor set. It first provides examples of the Cantor set and 2ω as spaces with these properties. It then proves that a function φ mapping 2ω to such a topological space X is a homeomorphism, showing φ is continuous, injective, and surjective. Therefore any space with the given properties is homeomorphic to 2ω , i.e. the Cantor set.

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Gabriel medina
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43 views

Cantor Characterization

This document characterizes and proves that any compact, second countable, zero dimensional, dense in itself, Hausdorff topological space is homeomorphic to the Cantor set. It first provides examples of the Cantor set and 2ω as spaces with these properties. It then proves that a function φ mapping 2ω to such a topological space X is a homeomorphism, showing φ is continuous, injective, and surjective. Therefore any space with the given properties is homeomorphic to 2ω , i.e. the Cantor set.

Uploaded by

Gabriel medina
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Characterization of the Cantor Set

Bellini, M. K.∗and Rodrigues, V. O.†


September 2019

Abstract
We prove that every compact, second countable, zero dimensional, dense in itself, Hausdorff topological space
is homeomorphic to 2ω .

1 Characterizing the Cantor Set


The aim of this document is to prove that every compact second countable zero dimensional dense in itself
Hausdorff topological space is homeomorphic to 2ω . This is an well known fact already proved by Brouwer in 1910
[1].
The Cantor set is subset of the real line R well known by being compact, containing no intervals (has empty
interior) and is dense in itself (it does not have isolated points).
Since it is a subspace of R, it is second countable and Hausdorff. It is also not hard to show it is zero dimensiona:
let C be the cantor set. If x ∈ C and (a, b) is an interval containing x, then, as C does not contains any inteval,
there exists a0 , b0 not in C with a < a0 < x < b0 < b. Then x ∈ (a0 , b0 ) ∩ C ⊆ (a, b) ∩ C and (a0 , b0 ) ∩ C is closed
in C since it equals [a0 , b0 ] ∩ C (in fact this argument shows that every subset of R with empty interior is zero
dimensional).
This concludes that the Cantor set is an example of a compact, Hausdorff, second countable, zero dimensional,
dense in itself topological space. Another example of such a space is the product 2ω = {0, 1}ω . We shall see below
that 2ω is homeomorphic to the Cantor set. In fact, we will see that every two spaces satisfying these properties
are homeomorphic.
We note that by Urysohn’s metrization theorem (see [2] or [3]), every Hausdorff regular second countable space
is metrizable. Thus, since every zero dimensional space is regular, an equivalent condition to being a compact,
Hausdorff, second countable, zero dimensional, dense in itself topological space is being a compact, second countable,
zero dimensional, dense in itself metrizable topological space.
Theorem 1.1. Every compact, second countable, zero dimensional, dense in itself, Hausdorff topological space is
homeomorphic to 2ω .
Proof. Let B = {Bn : n ∈ ω} be a basis of nonempty clopen sets. Recursively in the length of s ∈ 2<ω we define a
family of sets (Us : s ∈ 2<ω satisfying the following:

1. U∅ = X,
2. Us is a nonempty clopen set for every s ∈ 2<ω ,
3. For each n ∈ ω, s∈2n Us = X and Us 6= Ut whenever s, t ∈ 2n are distinct,
S

4. For each n ∈ ω, s ∈ 2n and i ∈ 2, either Us_(i) ⊂ Us ∩ Bm or Us_(i) ⊂ Us \ Bm .

We define U∅ = X. Suppose n ∈ ω and we have defined Us for s ∈ 2≤n . We show how to define Us for s ∈ 2n+1 .
Let s ∈ 2n . If either Us ⊂ Bn or Us ∩ Bn = ∅, then simply partition Us into two nonempty clopen subsets
Us_(0) and Us_(1) ; this is possible since Us is clopen, X has no isolated points, and is zero-dimensional.
In the case Us ∩ Bn 6= ∅ and Us \ Bn 6= ∅, since both Us and Bn are clopen, we may take Us_(0) = Us ∩ Bn and
Us_(1) = Us \ Bn .
∗ matheusb@ime.usp.br
† vinior@ime.usp.br

1
Define now φ : 2ω → X as follows: for each f ∈ 2ω , take any φ(f ) ∈ n∈ω Uf |n .
T
ω
First, we prove that φ is continuous: let f ∈ 2 and let n ∈ ω such that φ(f ) ∈ Bn . We have then that
φ(f ) ∈ Uf |n ∩ Bn . Now, either Uf |n+1 ⊂ Uf |n ∩ Bn or Uf |n+1 ⊂ Uf |n \ Bn . Since φ(f ) ∈ Uf |n+1 ∩ Bn , Uf |n+1 cannot
be disjoint from Bn . Therefore, we have Uf |n+1 ⊂ Bn . Notice now that φ[Vf |n+1 ] ⊂ Uf |n+1 , and thus Vf |n+1 is a
neighbourhood of f which we needed to verify continuity.
Now we prove φ is injective. Given distinct f, g ∈ 2ω , let n be the first integer such that f |n 6= g|n. Then
Uf |n ∩ Ug|n are disjoint by 3. Since φ(f ) ∈ Uf |n and φ(g) ∈ Ug|n , φ(f ) and φ(g) are distinct.
Now we prove the range of φ is dense. It suffices to see that given n ∈ ω, there exists f ∈ 2ω such that
φ(f ) ∈ Bn . By 3., there exists s ∈ 2n such that Us ∩ Bn 6= ∅. Since Us = Us_ (0) ∪ Us_ (1) , there exists i ∈ 2 such
that Us_ (i) ∩ Bn 6= ∅. So by 4., Us_ (i) ⊆ Bn . If f ∈ 2ω is any function such that s_ (i) ⊆ f , then by the definition
of φ, φ(f ) ⊆ Us_ (i) ⊆ Bn .
We now have that φ is a continuous function from a compact space to a Hausdorff space, and therefore it is
closed. In particular, its image is closed in X. But since the image is also dense, it follow that the function is
surjective.
Therefore, φ is a continuous and closed bijection between 2ω and X, and thus it is a homeomorphism.

References
[1] L.E.J. Brouwer. On the structure of perfect sets of points. KNAW, Proceedings, 23(4):397–399, 1910.
[2] R. Engelking. General topology. Monografie matematyczne. PWN, 1977.

[3] S. Willard. General Topology. Dover Books on Mathematics. Dover Publications, 1970.

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