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For a fixed centre $a$, the triangle inequality gives $|d(a,x)-d(a,y)|\le d(x,y)$, so the distance-to-centre function is continuous. Its preimage of $(-\infty ,r]$ is the closed ball, hence is closed. Since that closed set contains the corresponding open ball, it contains its closure:Here the bar on the right denotes a closed ball, while the bar on the left denotes closure.

For a fixed centre $a$, the triangle inequality gives $|d(a,x)-d(a,y)|\le d(x,y)$, so the distance-to-centre function is continuous. Its preimage of $(-\infty ,r]$ is the closed ball, hence is closed. Since that closed set contains the corresponding open ball, it contains its closure:Here the bar on the right denotes a closed ball, while the bar on the left denotes closure.

If $A$ is closed and $a_n\in A$ converges to $x\in X$, then $x$ cannot lie in the open complement: an open ball about such an $x$ would eventually contain all $a_n$ while missing $A$. Thus $x\in A$.

Conversely, suppose $A$ contains every limit of a sequence in $A$. If $x\in \overline{A}$, every ball $B(x,1/n)$ meets $A$; choose $a_n$ in that intersection. Then $a_n\to x$, so $x\in A$. Hence $\overline{A}=A$, proving that a subset of a metric space is a closed set exactly when it is sequentially closed.

If $A$ is closed and $a_n\in A$ converges to $x\in X$, then $x$ cannot lie in the open complement: an open ball about such an $x$ would eventually contain all $a_n$ while missing $A$. Thus $x\in A$.

Conversely, suppose $A$ contains every limit of a sequence in $A$. If $x\in \overline{A}$, every ball $B(x,1/n)$ meets $A$; choose $a_n$ in that intersection. Then $a_n\to x$, so $x\in A$. Hence $\overline{A}=A$, proving that a subset of a metric space is a closed set exactly when it is sequentially closed.

A map is continuous when the inverse image of every open set is open. Equivalently, the inverse image of every closed set is closed.

The closed sets contain the empty set and the whole space, are closed under arbitrary intersections, and are closed under finite unions. These conditions are equivalent, by complements, to the open-set axioms of a topology.

Suppose $f$ is continuous and $x\in \overline{A}$. Every open neighbourhood $V$ of $f(x)$ has an open preimage containing $x$, which meets $A$. Hence $V$ meets $f(A)$, proving $f(x)\in \overline{f(A)}$.

Conversely, suppose the indicated inclusion holds for every subset. To prove continuity, take any closed set $C\subseteq Y$ and put $A=f^{-1}(C)$. Since $f(A)\subseteq C$ and $C$ is closed,Thus $\overline{A}\subseteq f^{-1}(C)=A$, so $A$ is closed. Every closed set has closed preimage, which is the closed-set characterization of continuity.This is the closure characterization of continuity; it requires no Hausdorff or metric hypothesis.

Any proper closed subset $F$ of $Y$ must be finite: if it were infinite, part (ii) would give $F=\overline{F}=Y$. Therefore every nonempty open subset of $Y$, being the complement of a proper closed set, is cofinite.The empty set belongs to both topologies. Inclusion need not be equality; the target may have fewer open sets.

Write $K={\bigcap }_{i\in I}{K}_i$. Each $K_i$ is closed in $X$, by the compact subset of a Hausdorff space theorem. Therefore $K$ is closed, and is compact because $X$ is compact. The nonempty finite intersections give the finite intersection property, so part (a)(ii) also yields $K\ne \varnothing$.

Suppose $K$ were not connected. Part (c) would give disjoint open sets $U,V$ containing $K$ in their union and each meeting $K$. LetThis is a closed subset of the compact space $X$, and $C\cap {\bigcap }_{i\in I}{K}_i=\varnothing$. Apply the contrapositive of the finite intersection characterization of compactness to the family of closed sets $\{C\}\cup \{K_i:i\in I\}$. Some finite subfamily has empty intersection. Since every finite intersection of just the $K_i$ is nonempty, that subfamily must include $C$. Thus for some finite $J\subseteq I$,But $K\subseteq K_J$ and $K$ meets both $U$ and $V$. Therefore $K_J\cap U$ and $K_J\cap V$ are nonempty disjoint relatively open sets covering $K_J$, contradicting its assumed connectedness. This provesThis is connectedness of an intersection from connected finite intersections. If $I=\varnothing$, its intersection is $X$; the stated hypothesis for the finite set $J=\varnothing$ already makes $X$ nonempty and connected, so that case is included.

A homeomorphism is a bijection for which both the function and its inverse are continuous maps.

Let $f:X\to Y$ satisfy the given assumptions. For a closed subset $F$ of $X$, the closed subset of a compact space theorem makes $F$ compact. The continuous image of a compact space theorem makes $f(F)$ compact. Because $Y$ is Hausdorff, its compact subset $f(F)$ is closed. Thus $f$ is a closed map.

For $g=f^{-1}:Y\to X$, the inverse image of a closed set $F\subseteq X$ iswhich is closed in $Y$. The closed-set criterion for continuity therefore makes $g$ continuous. Hence $f$ is a homeomorphism, proving the compact-to-Hausdorff continuous bijection theorem.

Let $W=(\mathbb{N}\times S^1)/A$, and choose in each circle the point opposite $o$:In the subspace topology from the Euclidean plane, the sequence $z_n$ converges to $o$, which does not belong to $B$. Thus $B$ is not closed in $X$.

On the other hand, let $D={\bar{f}}^{-1}(B)\subseteq W$. With the quotient map $q$ from part (i),This is closed in $\mathbb{N}\times S^1$: its complement is the open set $\mathbb{N}\times (S^1\setminus \{(0,1)\})$. The definition of the quotient topology, applied to complements, says that $D$ is closed in $W$. A homeomorphism would carry this closed set to the closed set $B$, a contradiction. Therefore $\bar{f}$ is not a homeomorphism.

The obstruction occurs at the common point. The open set $W\setminus D$ contains the collapsed point, but its image $X\setminus B$ contains no neighbourhood of $o$, since $z_n\to o$. The wedge sum topology allows a separate small neighbourhood on each circle; a neighbourhood of $o$ in the Hawaiian earring must contain all sufficiently small whole circles.

False. Give $X=\mathbb{R}$ its usual topology, identify all points of $(0,1)$ with one another, and leave every other point in a singleton equivalence class. Take the closed set $K=\{1/2\}$.

Its image $p(K)$ is a singleton in the quotient space, but its full preimage, also called the saturation of a subset, isThis is not closed in $\mathbb{R}$, since $0$ belongs to its closure. In the quotient topology, a subset is closed exactly when its preimage is closed, by applying the defining open-set rule to complements. Thus $p(K)$ is not closed, and this quotient map is not a closed map.

If a topological space is the union of finitely many closed subspaces and continuous maps on those subspaces agree on every overlap, they combine into a continuous map on the whole space. For a closed set in the target, its preimage is a finite union of closed sets, proving continuity.

On continuous functions on a compact interval, evaluation at an interior point is not continuous in the integral norm. Narrow triangular peaks have fixed point value and integral tending to zero. Subtracting such a peak from the constant function one gives functions vanishing at the point and converging in the integral norm to one. Thus the evaluation kernel is not closed, although it is closed in the uniform norm.

Here is a fully computed endpoint version, now using the L2 norm on the actual continuous functions $C([0,1])$. For each integer $n\ge 1$, set $f_n(x)=\max (1-nx,0)$. Its point evaluation at zero is $E(f_n)=f_n(0)=1$, whileConsequently $f_n\to 0$ in the L2 norm but $E(f_n)\nrightarrow 0$: point evaluation is discontinuous on this normed space. Quantitatively $|E(f_n)|/\Vert f_n{\Vert }_2=\sqrt{3n}$ is unbounded. At $n=100$, the L2 norm is approximately $0.057735$, the integral is $0.005$, and the point value is still $1$. In the supremum norm, $\Vert f_n{\Vert }_{\infty }=1$ and $|E(f)|\le \Vert f{\Vert }_{\infty }$, so $E$ has operator norm one instead.

Set $g_n=1-f_n$. Then $E(g_n)=0$ and $\Vert g_n-1{\Vert }_2=1/\sqrt{3n}\to 0$, although $E(1)=1$. Thus the kernel of $E$ fails to be a closed set. On the full L2 space, a further distinction is essential: its elements are equivalence classes under equality almost everywhere, and changing a representative at zero does not change its class. Arbitrary point evaluation is therefore not even well-defined there. Restricting first to continuous functions makes the discontinuity statement precise.^[ref]

A weak preference relation records that one alternative is at least as desirable as another. Rational preferences are complete and transitive. Their strict preference and indifference relation are the asymmetric and symmetric parts. On a consumption space, continuity is expressed by a closed set of weakly ranked pairs.

For metric spaces $X,Y$ with $X$ compact, the projection with a compact factor is closed: if $F\subset X\times Y$ is a closed set and $y_n\in {\pi }_Y(F)$ converges to $y$, choose $x_n$ with $(x_n,y_n)\in F$. Sequential compactness supplies $x_{n_k}\to x$, so $(x_{n_k},y_{n_k})\to (x,y)\in F$, proving $y\in {\pi }_Y(F)$. The projection map is also continuous for the sum metric. Without compactness, the closed set $\{(x,y)\in {\mathbb{R}}^2:xy=1\}$ projects to the nonclosed set $\mathbb{R}\setminus \{0\}$.

A topological space is regular when a point and a closed set not containing it have disjoint open neighborhoods. Equivalently, for every point $x$ in an open set $U$, there is an open $W$ with $x\in W\subseteq \overline{W}\subseteq U$. To obtain shrinking, separate $x$ from the closed complement of $U$; the closure of the point's neighborhood avoids the other neighborhood. Conversely use such a shrinking and the complement of its closure. This definition alone does not require $T_1$.

In a finite flow network, a maximum flow exists because the feasible flow set contains the zero flow and is a compact set: the capacity constraints bound every coordinate, and they and flow conservation define a closed set. The strength of a flow is a continuous function, so the extreme value theorem gives an attained maximum. An augmenting path in the residual network would permit positive augmentation, contradicting maximality. The source-reachable vertices in the residual network therefore define a cut of a flow network whose outgoing original edges are saturated and incoming original edges carry zero flow. Flow conservation makes the strength of a flow equal to this cut capacity, proving the max-flow min-cut theorem.

Existence and strong duality for finite real flow network edge capacities do not imply finite termination for every choice of augmenting paths in the Ford-Fulkerson algorithm. With irrational capacities, some choices can continue forever. With integer capacities, Integrality of the Ford-Fulkerson algorithm instead forces finite termination; rational capacities reduce to that case by a common denominator. Choosing shortest augmenting paths as in the Edmonds–Karp algorithm avoids dependence on capacity magnitudes.^[ref]

For the canonical projection of a quotient set $p:X\to X/\sim$, the saturation of $A\subseteq X$ is the union of all equivalence classes meeting $A$, namely $p^{-1}(p(A))$. A subset is called saturated when it equals its saturation. The quotient topology says that $p(A)$ is closed exactly when the saturation of $A$ is closed, and similarly for openness. A closed set need not have closed saturation: collapsing $(0,1)\subset \mathbb{R}$ to one point makes the saturation of $\{1/2\}$ equal to $(0,1)$. Hence a quotient map need not be a closed map.

A sequentially closed set is one that contains every limit of its convergent sequences. This is weaker than being a closed set in a general topological space, but the two conditions agree in metric spaces.