Connectedness of one-point compactification when the space only has finitely many components.

general-topology

I want to prove the following:

Let $X$ be a locally compact non-empty Hausdorff space with finitely many components. Let $X^+$ be the one-point compactification of $X$. Then $X^+$ is connected $\iff$ no component of $X$ is compact.

I considered using contraposition for the $\Rightarrow$ implication, i.e. if $X$ has a compact component, then there is a seperation of $X^+$. Since $X$ has finitely many components, each of the components are both open and closed. I also know that $X^+$ contains exactly one more point than $X$, but I don't know where to go from here. For the other implication, I don't know where to start.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Best Answer

Suppose $X$ has finitely many components $C_1,\ldots, C_n$. As components are always closed, each component has a closed complement and so is open in $X$ as well, and will thus stay open in $X^+$.

So $X^+$ connected means no $C_i$ can be compact: otherwise, it would be non-trivial and clopen in $X^+$ still and so give a disconnection of $X^+$ which cannot exist by connectedness.

And conversely, if no $C_i$ is compact, $C_i \cup \{\infty\}$ is compact (it's actually just $C_i^+$) and connected as it has a dense connected subset $C_i$. And $X^+ = \bigcup_{i=1}^n C_i^+$ is then a union of connected subsets all intersecting in $\infty$ hence connected.