Compactness is weakly hereditary

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This article gives the statement, and possibly proof, of a topological space property (i.e., compact space) satisfying a topological space metaproperty (i.e., weakly hereditary property of topological spaces)
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Statement

Property-theoretic statement

The property of topological spaces of being compact satisfies the metaproperty of being weakly hereditary: in other words, it is inherited by closed subsets.

Verbal statement

Any closed subset of a compact space is compact (when given the subspace topology).

Related facts

Weakly hereditary for properties related to compactness


Proof

Proof in terms of open covers

Given: X a compact space, A a closed subset (given the subspace topology)

To prove: Consider an open cover of A by open sets Ui with iI, an indexing set. The Ui have a finite subcover.

Proof:

  1. By the definition of subspace topology, we can find open sets Vi of X such that ViA=Ui, thus the union of the Vis contains A.
  2. Since A is closed, we can throw in the open set XA, and get an open cover of the whole space X.
  3. Since the whole space is compact, this open cover has a finite subcover. In other words, there is a finite subcollection of the Vis, that, possibly along with XA, covers the whole of X.
  4. By throwing out XA, we get a finite collection of Vis whose union contains A. The corresponding Ui now form a finite subcover of the original cover of A.

Proof in terms of finite intersection property

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References

Textbook references

  • Topology (2nd edition) by James R. Munkres, More info, Page 165, Theorem 26.2, Chapter 3, Section 26
  • Lecture Notes on Elementary Topology and Geometry (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics) by I. M. Singer and J. A. Thorpe, More info, Page 12 (Theorem 4)