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If X Is A Limit Point of A Set S, Then Every Open Ball Centered at X Contains Infinitely Many Points of S?

The document provides an explanation and proof of the statement "If a limit point of the set S is defined as x, then every open ball that is centered at x contains infinitely many points of S." It does so in two parts: 1) For metric spaces, it proves the statement directly by contradiction. 2) For topological spaces, it notes the statement is false in general but true for T1 spaces, and modifies the proof approach accordingly.

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78 views

If X Is A Limit Point of A Set S, Then Every Open Ball Centered at X Contains Infinitely Many Points of S?

The document provides an explanation and proof of the statement "If a limit point of the set S is defined as x, then every open ball that is centered at x contains infinitely many points of S." It does so in two parts: 1) For metric spaces, it proves the statement directly by contradiction. 2) For topological spaces, it notes the statement is false in general but true for T1 spaces, and modifies the proof approach accordingly.

Uploaded by

naoto_soma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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If x is a limit point of a set S, then every open ball centered at x contains infinitely many points of S?

I'm told that the following statement is true:

"If a limit point of the set S is defined as x, then every open ball that is centered at x contains infinitely many
points of S."

Yet I can't begin to imagine how the proof is completed. Any assistance would be very welcomed. Thanks!

(metric-spaces)

edited Mar 31 '11 at 18:41 asked Mar 31 '11 at 18:41


Arturo Magidin user8951
228k 24 516 818

What kind of space are you talking about? This is false in general, but true in, for example, metric spaces.
Arturo Magidin Mar 31 '11 at 18:42

Yeah, I meant metric space. Sorry about that! user8951 Mar 31 '11 at 18:48

Appendix
Equivalence between Definition 5.5 and Corollary 5.7 with T1 space

I assume that "x is a limit point of S " means that:

Every open ball that is centered at x contains some point of S other than x .

For metric spaces.

Suppose there is an > 0 such that B(x, ) S {x} = {s1 , , sn } is finite. Let
i = d(x, si ) be the distance from x so si for each i . Now let = 12 min(1 , , n ) . Then
B(x, ) S {x} = , which means that x cannot be a limit point of S .

By contrapositive, if x is a limit point of S , then every open ball centered at x contains


infinitely many points of S .

For topological spaces.

Modifying the proposition by replacing "open ball containing x " with "open set containing x "
(i.e., "open neighborhood of x "), the result is false in general but true in T1 (or better) spaces.
A space is T1 if and only if for every x and y , x y , there are open subsets U and V such that
x U V and y V U .

One argues as above: suppose there is an open set U containing x such that
U S {x} = {s1 , , sn } is finite. For each i , let Ui be an open set containing x but not
containing si (the existence of Ui is guaranteed by the separation property). Then
V = U U1 Un is a finite intersection of open sets, hence open, it contains x , and
V S {x} = , so x is not a limit point of S .

However, the proposition fails if X is not T1 . Let x and y be elements that witness the fact that
X is not T1 . So either all open sets that contains x also contain y , or all open sets that contain
y also contain x . Assume without loss of generality that all open sets that contain x also
contain y . Then S = {y} has x as a limit point, but every open set that contains x intersects S
at a single point, not infinitely many.

edited Mar 31 '11 at 19:16 answered Mar 31 '11 at 18:52


Ross Millikan Arturo Magidin
218k 18 143 275 228k 24 516 818

Sorry, I'm trying to follow the logic here (and having a wee bit of trouble!). Why do we assign as one-half
the smallest i value? user8951 Mar 31 '11 at 19:33

@Jill: Overkill; this ensure that the distance from x to any si is definitely larger than ; you could have just
taken the minimum of the i instead. Arturo Magidin Mar 31 '11 at 19:34

That's what I thought. Thanks! I am humbled in your presence :) user8951 Mar 31 '11 at 19:38

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