Countable Dense Open Sets in Compact Hausdorff Spaces?

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In summary, a compact Hausdorff space is a topological space that is both compact and Hausdorff. A set is dense in a space if every point in the space is either a member of the set or a limit point of the set. In a compact Hausdorff space, the intersection of any countable collection of dense open sets is itself dense, making it useful for approximating points in the space. This property is a generalization of the Baire category theorem for compact Hausdorff spaces. However, it cannot be extended to uncountable collections of dense open sets due to the limitation of only being able to guarantee the existence of a countable dense set in a compact Hausdorff space
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Euge
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Here is this week's POTW:

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Show that in a compact Hausdorff space, any countable collection of dense open sets has dense intersection.

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Congratulations to Opalg for his correct solution, which you can read below:
This is one form of the Baire category theorem. The proof relies on the fact that a compact Hausdorff space $X$ is regular, meaning that if $U$ is an open subset of $X$ and $x\in U$ then there is an open subset $V$ such that $x\in V\subseteq \overline{V} \subseteq U$, where $ \overline{V}$ is the closure of $V$.

Suppose that $\{U_n\}_{n\in\Bbb N}$ is a countable collection of dense open subsets of $X$. Let $W$ be an open subset of $X$. Then we want to show that \(\displaystyle W\cap \bigcap_{n\in\Bbb N}U_n \ne\emptyset\).

Since $U_1$ is dense in $X$, $W\cap U_1\ne\emptyset$. So there exists a nonempty open set $V_1$ such that $\overline V_1 \subseteq W\cap U_1$.

Since $U_2$ is dense in $X$, $U_2\cap V_1\ne\emptyset$. So there exists a nonempty open set $V_2$ such that $\overline V_2 \subseteq V_1\cap U_2$.

Continuing in this way, we get a decreasing sequence of nonempty open sets $\{V_n\}_{n\in\Bbb N}$ such that \(\displaystyle \overline V_n \subseteq W\cap \bigcap_{k=1}^n U_k\). The sets $\overline V_n$ are compact and satisfy the finite intersection property. So the intersection \(\displaystyle \bigcap_{n\in\Bbb N}\overline V_n\) is nonempty and contained in \(\displaystyle W\cap \bigcap_{n\in\Bbb N}U_n\). That completes the proof.
 

FAQ: Countable Dense Open Sets in Compact Hausdorff Spaces?

What is a compact Hausdorff space?

A compact Hausdorff space is a topological space that satisfies two important properties: compactness and Hausdorffness. Compactness means that every open cover has a finite subcover, while Hausdorffness means that any two distinct points in the space have disjoint neighborhoods. These properties make compact Hausdorff spaces particularly useful in analysis and geometry.

What does it mean for a set to be dense?

A set is considered dense in a topological space if every point in the space is either a member of the set or a limit point of the set. In other words, the set is "closely packed" within the space. In the context of this question, we are looking at dense open sets, which means that the set is both dense and open.

Why is the intersection of dense open sets important in a compact Hausdorff space?

In a compact Hausdorff space, the intersection of any countable collection of dense open sets is itself dense. This is an important property because it allows us to approximate any point in the space with points from these dense open sets. This is useful in many applications, such as in functional analysis, where we want to approximate functions with simpler functions.

How does this property relate to the Baire category theorem?

The Baire category theorem states that in a complete metric space, a countable intersection of dense open sets is also dense. The property we are discussing in this question is a generalization of the Baire category theorem to compact Hausdorff spaces. It shows that even in spaces that are not necessarily complete or metrizable, we can still have a similar result.

Can this property be extended to uncountable collections of dense open sets?

No, this property only holds for countable collections of dense open sets. In fact, there are examples of compact Hausdorff spaces where the intersection of uncountable collections of dense open sets is not necessarily dense. This limitation is due to the fact that we can only guarantee the existence of a countable dense set in a compact Hausdorff space, making it impossible to extend this result to uncountable collections.

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