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Lecture 4

The document discusses continuity in metric spaces. It defines continuity of a function between two metric spaces using open sets and neighborhoods. It proves this definition is equivalent to the epsilon-delta definition of continuity. It also presents the sequential criterion for continuity - that a function is continuous if and only if it maps convergent sequences to convergent sequences. It provides proofs for basic properties of continuous functions including sums, products, and quotients of continuous functions being continuous.

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vinay PAL
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12 views3 pages

Lecture 4

The document discusses continuity in metric spaces. It defines continuity of a function between two metric spaces using open sets and neighborhoods. It proves this definition is equivalent to the epsilon-delta definition of continuity. It also presents the sequential criterion for continuity - that a function is continuous if and only if it maps convergent sequences to convergent sequences. It provides proofs for basic properties of continuous functions including sums, products, and quotients of continuous functions being continuous.

Uploaded by

vinay PAL
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
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Continuity in a metric space

August 31, 2023

Theorem 0.1. Let (X, dX ) and (Y, dY ) be metric spaces and f : X → Y be a map.
TFAE

(i) f is continuous.

(ii) Given x ∈ X and ϵ > 0, there exists δ > 0 such that

dX (x, y) < δ =⇒ dY (f (x), f (y)) < ϵ.

Proof : ( =⇒ ) Fix xinX. Take V = BdY (f (x), ϵ). Since f is continuous at x, it follows
that there exists U open in X containg x such that

f (U ) ⊂ V.

Get a ball BdX (x, δ) such that

x ∈ BdX (x, δ) ⊂ U.

Then we have
f (BdX (x, δ)) ⊂ BdY (f (x), ϵ).
Hence
dX (x, y) < δ =⇒ dY (f (x), f (y)) < ϵ.
Proof of (ii) is similar, hence omitted. □

Lemma 0.2. (The sequential lemma:) Let X be a topological space, and A ⊂ X.

(i) If there is a sequence {an } in A converging to x ∈ X then x ∈ A.

(ii) Assume X is a metric space (or metrizable). If x ∈ A then there exists a sequence
{an } in A converging to x.

1
Proof : Take a nbd U of x. Since an → x, there exists N ∈ N such that

an ∈ U for all n ≥ N.

Then aN +1 ∈ U ∩ A. This proves that x ∈ A.

To show part (ii), let x ∈ A. We need to produce a sequence an in A such that an → x.


Take the nbd B(x, n1 ) of x. Since x ∈ A, we have
1
B(x, ) ∩ A ̸= ϕ.
n
Take an ∈ B(x, n1 ).
Claim: an → x.
Proof: Take any open set U of x. Get a basis element B(x, r) such that

x ∈ B(x, r) ⊂ U.
1
Choose N such that N
< r. Then for all n > N , we have
1
an ∈ B(x, ) ⊂ B(x, r) ⊂ U.
N
□

Theorem 0.3. (The sequential criterion:) Let f : X → Y be a map.

(i) If f is continuous at x then for every sequence xn → x ∈ X, we have

f (xn ) → f (x).

(ii) Assume X is a metric space (or metrizable). If for every sequence xn → x ∈ X,


we have
f (xn ) → f (x).
then f is continuous at x.

Proof : We will prove the second part only. We will show that

if f is not continuous at x then there exists a sequence xn such that xn → x but f (xn )
does not converge to f (x).

2
Assume that f is not continuous at x. Then there exists a nbd V of f (x) such that

f (U ) is not contained in V for any nbd U of x.

Take B(x, n1 ). Choose xn ∈ B(x, n1 ) such that f (xn ) ∈


/ V . It is not difficult to see that

xn → x.

However, f (xn ) does not converge to f (x) as f (xn ) ∈


/ V for all n ∈ N. □

Theorem 0.4. The following functions

(i) + : R × R → R, +(x, y) = x + y;

(ii) − : R × R → R, −(x, y) = x − y;

(iii) × : R × R → R, ×(x, y) = xy;


··· ·
(iv) ···
: R × R \ {0} → R, ·
(x, y) = xy ;

are continuous.

Proof : Use sequential criteria. □

Theorem 0.5. Let X be a topological space and f, g : X → R be two continuous func-


tions. Then

• f + g, f − g, f g are continuous.

• If g(x) ̸= 0 then f
g
is continuous at x.

Proof : Consider the map

Φ : X → R × R; Φ(x) = (f (x), g(x)) for all x ∈ X.

Since f, g are continuous, it follows that Φ is continuous. Consider

X Φ /R×R+ /R

that is, consider the function h = + ◦ Φ. Using composition rule, h is continuous. Now,
for x ∈ X, one has

h(x) = (+ ◦ Φ)(x) = +(f (x), g(x)) = f (x) + g(x).

Hence h = f + g is continuous. The other claims follow along a similar line.


□

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