Compact Metric Spaces Math 321-2010-W2 The purpose of these notes is to prove that several dierent characterizations of compact

metric spaces are equivalent. Let (X, d) be a metric space. We say that X is totally bounded if, for every > 0, X is covered by nitely many open balls of radius . We will call X sequentially compact if every sequence {xn } in X has n=1 a convergent subsequence. We call X pseudo-compact if every continuous function f : X R is bounded. Lemma 1. Let (X, d) be a non-empty metric space and let p X. Dene a function f : X R by f (x) = d(x, p). Then f is continuous. Proof. Pick > 0 and x X. Set B = B(x, ). Suppose y B. Then f (y) = d(y, p) d(y, x) + d(y, p) < f (x) + and also f (x) = d(x, p) d(x, y) + d(y, p) < + f (y); therefore, f (x) < f (y). So y B |f (y) f (x)| < . Lemma 2. Let (X, d) be totally bounded metric space. Then any subset Y X is totally bounded. Proof. Cover X with nite set S of balls of radius . Let T := {B S : B Y = }. Then T covers Y . Write T = {B(x1 , ), . . . , B(xr , )} for some non-negative integer r. For each i, we pick yi B(xi , ) Y . Then, for each i, B(xi , ) B(yi , 2 ). Therefore {B(y1 , 2 ), . . . , B(yr , 2 )} is an open cover of Y . Theorem 3. Let (X, d) be a metric space. Then the following assertions are equivalent. (a) X is compact. (b) X is pseudo-compact. (c) X is sequentially compact. (d) X is complete and totally bounded. Proof. (a) (b): If f : X R is continuous and X is compact, then f (X) is also compact, thus, bounded. (b) (c): Suppose {xn } is a sequence in X with no convergent subsequence. Then, for each x X, set r(x) = inf{d(xn , x) : d(xn , x) > 0}. Since {xn } has no convergent subsequence, r(x) > 0 for all x X. Now dene 3d(xn , x) , 0) fn (x) = n max(1 r(xn ) and set f (x) = n1 fn (x). Then each function fn is continuous. Moreover, for any x X, there are only nitely many n for which fn is non-zero on B(x) := B(x, r(x)/6). If x = xn for some n then this follows directly from the fact that {xn } has no convergent subsequence which implies that x = xm for only nitely many m. Otherwise, suppose that fn (y) = 0 for y B(x). Then d(y, xn ) r(xn )/3 and d(y, x) r(x)/6. Therefore r(x) d(x, xn ) d(x, y) + d(y, xn ) r(x) r(xn ) + . 6 3 5 r(xn ) r(x) 6 3 2 r(x) r(xn ). 5 Therefore d(x, xn ) 1 2 r(xn ) 2 r(xn ) + = r(xn ). 6 5 3 5 1

So if y, z B(x) and both fn (y) and fm (z) are non-zero, it follows that d(xn , xm ) d(xn , x) + d(x, xm ) 2 2 r(xn ) + r(xm ) 5 5 2 2 d(xn , xm ) + d(xn , xm ) 5 5 4 = d(xn , xm ) 5 d(xn , xm ) = 0 xn = xm . It follows that the sum is uniformly convergent on B(x) and, thus, that f : X R is continuous. But f (xn ) fn (xn ) = n for all n, so f is not bounded. (c) (d): First we check that X is complete. To see this, take a Cauchy sequence {xn }. By (c), {xn } has a subsequence {xnk } converging to a point x X. I claim that xn x. To see this, pick > 0. Since {xn } is Cauchy, we can nd a positive integer N such that n, m N d(xn , xm ) < /2. Since xnk x we can nd a nk > N such that d(xnk , x) < /2. But then n N d(xn , x) d(xn , xnk ) + d(xnk , x) < . Now we show that X is totally bounded. To do this, assume the contrary to get a contradiction. Then there exists an > 0 such that X cannot be covered by nitely many open balls of radius . So there exists an innite sequence {xn } such that d(xn , xm ) for n > m. This sequence cannot have any Cauchy subsequence. Thus it cannot have any convergent subsequence. (d) (a): Suppose that U := {Ui }iI is an open cover of X and S X. We will say that U is nite on S if S can be covered by a nitely many Ui for i I. Otherwise, we say that U is innite on S. Note that if S, T X are two sets and U is nite on S and T , then U is nite on S T . Note also that every point x X has an open neighbourhood N such that U is nite on N . Now suppose that U is an open cover of X with no nite subcover. We are going to construct a sequence {xn } of points in X and a sequence {Bi } of open subsets of X with the following properties n=0 i=0 (3.1) xi+1 Bi for i 0; (3.2) U is innite on Bi for i 0. (3.3) Bi = B(xi , 1/2n ) for i 1. To do this, rst pick an arbitrary point x0 X and set B0 := X. (We know X = because otherwise every cover of X is nite.) Suppose that n > 0 and the xi and Bi are constructed satisfying the above properties for i < n. Cover Bn1 with nitely open balls of radius 1/2n . Since U is innite on Bn1 , it is innite on one of these balls. Let Bn := B(xn , 1/2n ) denote this ball. Then properties (3.1-3) are manifestly satised. Now note that the sequence {xn } is Cauchy because m > n d(xn , xm ) < 1/2n1 . So x := lim xn exists by hypothesis. But now we can nd an open neighbourhood B = B(x, r) of X such that U is nite on B. Since B contains Bn for all suciently large n, this implies that U is nite on one of the Bn . But this contradicts (3.2) and completes the proof of the theorem. Remark 4. It is easy to see that, if X is totally bounded, then X is bounded. Remark 5. For metric spaces, we have just shown that pseudo-compactness, sequential compactness and compactness coincide. However, for general topological spaces, these concepts can be dierent. The one that seems to be the most useful for general topological spaces is compactness. A metric space (X, d) is said to be separable if it has a countable dense subset. The property of separability is very useful in general, and we will use it in the proof of Ascoli-Arzela. Lemma 6. Let X be a totally bounded metric space. Then X has a countable dense subset. Proof. Since X is totally bounded, for each positive integer n, we can nd a nite subset En of X such that X = xEn B(x, 1/n). The set E := nZ+ En is then dense in X. 2

Exercise 7. Prove the following. If (X, d) is separable and Y X, then Y is separable. If X = Xn n=1 and each Xn is separable then X is separable. Exercise* 8. Suppose (X, d) is separable. Then the cardinality of X is at most that of R. (Hint: Let T be a countable dense subset of X. Show that X and T have the same completion.) Acknowledgements. I thank Adam Ng and Owen Ren for catching an error in the original version of the proof that pseudo-compactness implies sequential compactness and also for helping me to x the proof.