Gluing lemma for closed subsets

From Topospaces
Revision as of 18:05, 11 December 2007 by Vipul (talk | contribs)

Statement

Let A and B be closed subsets of a topological space X whose union is X, and f:AY and g:BY be continuous maps such that f(x)=g(x)xAB. Then there exists a unique continuous map from X to Y whose restriction to A is f and to B is g.

The result can be modified to handle finitely many closed sets which cover X; however, it does not cater to arbitrarily many closed sets which cover X. This is in contrast with the gluing lemma for open subsets.

Related results

Proof

The proof uses the following key facts:

  • A map is continuous if and only if the inverse image of any closed subset is closed
  • A union of two closed subsets is closed

Fill this in later