Convergence in a product space

ID: convergence-in-a-product-space

For arbitrary topological spaces , an index set , a sequence , and a point in that Cartesian product, convergence in a product space to in the product topology is equivalent to coordinatewise convergence in every factor. No countability or Hausdorff assumption on the factors is needed. For a product space of copies of the real line, regarding each point as a function identifies this with pointwise convergence.
Proof outline: the forward implication follows because each projection map is continuous. Conversely, given a basic neighborhood of , each of its finitely many coordinate tests holds for all . Taking makes all tests hold simultaneously; if is empty, any threshold works. This proves eventual membership in every neighborhood, rather than only in a sampled collection of cylinders. The same equivalence holds for nets: a directed set supplies a common upper bound for finitely many thresholds. Sequences alone need not characterize the whole topology of an arbitrary product space.

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