For any , the balls form an open cover of the compact metric space . Compactness supplies a finite subcover
This is exactly total boundedness.
Choose an open cover of by affine opens . Since is a quasi-compact topological space, finitely many suffice. Let be the restrictions of . Part (a) identifies with , whose ring of regular functions is the localization of a ring . The vanishing of there means
so for some . Taking at least as large as every gives on every member of the finite cover. The local identity axiom for the sheaf of rings therefore gives
For an ordered open cover and a sheaf of sets , the Čech cochain group is
Its Čech coboundary is
Terms in cancel in pairs. Hence
A compact space is a topological space in which every open cover has a finite subcover. A Hausdorff space is one in which every two distinct points have disjoint open neighbourhoods. A homeomorphism is a bijection that is continuous and whose inverse is continuous.
For an equivalence relation on , let be the set of equivalence classes and let
The quotient topology declares open exactly when is open in . It follows directly from the definition that is continuous.
Suppose that the continuous map is constant on equivalence classes. The only possible factorisation is
which is well-defined by the hypothesis and satisfies . For every open ,
is open in . The definition of the quotient topology therefore makes open, so is continuous. This proves the universal property of the quotient topology.
The empty set is bounded. Otherwise choose in the compact metric space . The open balls , , form an open cover. A finite subcover exists by compactness; because the balls are nested, the largest one already covers . Hence for some .
For , the triangle inequality gives . Thus
The proof uses only compactness and the metric, not a coordinate system.
Let be any sequence in the compact metric space . There must be an such that every open ball about contains for infinitely many indices . Otherwise, for each choose a ball containing only finitely many terms, counted by indices. These balls are an open cover. A finite subcover would imply that only finitely many indices occur anywhere in , a contradiction.
Now choose successively with ; infinitely many available indices make this possible. Then , so is a convergent subsequence. Thus
The proof counts indices rather than distinct points, so it also handles a value repeated infinitely often.
A metric space is a compact space if every open cover , with all open in , has a finite subcover: finitely many indices cover .
It is a sequentially compact space if every sequence in has a convergent subsequence whose limit of a sequence belongs to . In formulas,
A finite subcover is the defining test for compactness; a convergent subsequence is the defining test for sequential compactness.
A topology on contains , is closed under arbitrary unions and under finite intersections. The cofinite family has these properties: a nonempty union contains one cofinite member and therefore has finite complement; the complement of a finite intersection is a finite union of finite sets. The empty union and the sets are included explicitly.
Any two nonempty open sets intersect, because their intersection has finite complement in the infinite set . Thus no two disjoint nonempty open sets can separate , proving connectedness. For compactness, take any open cover and choose a nonempty member . Only finitely many points lie outside . Choose one covering member for each of those points. Together with these give a finite subcover. Thus is compact.
Let be an open cover of , with the sets open in . The preimages form an open cover of , because is continuous. By compactness, finitely many of these preimages cover . Their corresponding sets cover , providing a finite subcover. Hence the continuous image is compact.
A subset is compact when every open cover of has a finite subcover. This may be stated using sets open in the ambient space or using the subspace topology on ; the definitions agree because every subspace-open set is the intersection of with an ambient-open set.
If , any open cover contains a member containing . Such a member is either or a ray with . It therefore contains every element of , so that single member is already a subcover.
Conversely suppose is nonempty and has no smallest element. Then
is an open cover of : for any , the lack of a minimum gives an below . A nonempty finite subcollection has union , where is the smallest of its thresholds. It misses . The empty subcollection cannot cover nonempty either. Hence there is no finite subcover, and is not compact. Thus compactness is equivalent to having a smallest element.
An open cover of a topological space is a collection of open subsets whose union is the whole space. A compact space is one for which every open cover admits a finite subcover. The subspace topology on consists of sets with open in .
Let cover by relatively open sets, and write with open in . By continuity, is an open cover of . A finite subcollection covers by compactness, and its corresponding cover . Thus a continuous image of a compact space is compact.
For an image that is not closed, take to be a singleton and with the indiscrete topology. Send the sole point to . This map is continuous and is compact, while is not closed in , whose only closed sets are and . A Hausdorff hypothesis on the target would exclude this example.
A subset is compact if every cover of it by open sets of the ambient space has a finite subcover; equivalently use open sets of its subspace topology. A cover of separately covers and . Compactness of each supplies two finite collections, whose union is finite and covers . If is closed in a compact space, add the open complement of to any open cover of . Compactness supplies a finite subcover of the whole space, and discarding the complement leaves a finite cover of .
For the enlarged space, every old open set is open in and has the same trace on . The trace on of a new open set is , which is open in because its complement is closed. Thus the induced topology on is exactly the original one.
Given an open cover of , choose a member containing infinity. It has the form with compact. The remaining cover restricted to has a finite subcover. Together with the chosen infinity-neighborhood, these finitely many sets cover . Hence is compact, with no Hausdorff assumption needed.
Finally put . Continuity makes open and containing infinity. Therefore with compact and closed in . For every we have
This expresses convergence to the value at infinity outside compact closed subsets.
A topological space is compact if every open cover of it has a finite subcover. That is, if with all open, finitely many of those same open sets already cover .
An open cover of a topological space is a collection of open subsets whose union is the whole space. A compact space is one for which every open cover admits a finite subcover. The subspace topology on consists of sets with open in .
Let cover by relatively open sets, and write with open in . By continuity, is an open cover of . A finite subcollection covers by compactness, and its corresponding cover . Thus a continuous image of a compact space is compact.
For an image that is not closed, take to be a singleton and with the indiscrete topology. Send the sole point to . This map is continuous and is compact, while is not closed in , whose only closed sets are and . A Hausdorff hypothesis on the target would exclude this example.
Let and use the open cover
The cap is open in : it equals because the attached chord has . The cap is homeomorphic to an open disk, and is a punctured open disk, hence homotopy equivalent to a circle. Both sets and their intersection are path-connected. Choose the base point in that intersection.
We first calculate . A stereographic projection identifies with and sends the two chord endpoints to . Thus becomes the Euclidean plane with an extra closed interval attached at those two points. This description is a homeomorphism: gluing the two closed pieces along their endpoints gives exactly the original subspace topology.
The Euclidean plane has a deformation retraction onto while fixing its endpoints. An explicit homotopy is
Extend it by the identity map on the extra chord. The pasting lemma for closed subspaces gives a deformation retraction of onto two distinct closed intervals sharing just their endpoints, a circle. Consequently , with the routine base point transport if the retraction moves .
The inclusion-induced group homomorphism is trivial: it factors through , which is contractible. Also . All hypotheses of the Seifert-van Kampen theorem are now checked, and it gives the fundamental group of a sphere with an attached chord:
where both maps from the amalgamating infinite cyclic group are trivial. A group generator follows the chord from one endpoint to the other and returns along any path on the sphere, with a connecting path from the chosen base point.
Put and let denote the attaching circle. The version of the Seifert-van Kampen theorem used here states that if is an open cover with path-connected and a common base point in , then
The expression on the right means the pushout of groups of the two inclusion-induced group homomorphisms; they need not be injective.
Choose a thin collar neighbourhood of inside , and a thin equatorial band inside . For example, before the square's side identifications take with , and take . In the glued topological space set
These are open subsets: their preimages in the two pieces are open and respect the gluing. They cover , and the three deformation retractions
fix . Thus all three spaces are path-connected, and a base point is preserved.
For completeness, the fundamental group of a once-punctured torus is , and its boundary loop of a once-punctured torus represents , up to orientation and a change of base point. Here is the geometry behind both facts. In the square model, move each point of radially outwards to the square boundary:
The denominator never vanishes on . The homotopy stays outside the missing open disk, stays inside the square, and fixes the square boundary, so it descends through the side identifications. The resulting retract is a wedge of two circles. Its fundamental group is the free group on the two oriented side based loops . The inner boundary loop travels around the square once under this deformation retraction; its successive sides read .
The sphere is simply connected. Hence the group homomorphism from to is trivial, while its map to sends a group generator to . Applying the Seifert-van Kampen theorem gives
The final group isomorphism follows because the single relator makes commute, leaving the free abelian group on two group generators. The two hemispheres kill the same boundary loop; they do not create another group generator.
Let be an open cover of . By continuity, the inverse images are open in ; by surjectivity, they cover . Compactness supplies finitely many covering . Applying and using shows that the corresponding finitely many cover .
A topological space is compact if every open cover has a finite subcover:
There is no Hausdorff requirement in this definition.