[Math] Find the set of accumulation points of $\{1+\frac{1}{n} : n\in N\} $ with proof

real-analysis

Find the set of accumulation points of $\{1+\frac{1}{n} : n\in N\} $

Hello, I need help understanding what is an accumalation point of a set.
From the set $\{1+\frac{1}{n} : n\in N\} $, I can see that $1$ is an accumulation point but I cannot see why $1+\frac{1}{n}$ with $n$ really really large is not accumlation point . For example $1+\frac{1}{1000000} = 1.000001 $ is not an accumulation point.

Let $E\subseteq R$ and $x\in R $. We say that $x$ is an accumulation point of $E$
if $\forall \epsilon>0, (x-\epsilon,x+\epsilon)\cap E\backslash x \ne \emptyset $

  1. If $x-\epsilon<1$,

By the Archimedean property there exists an $n$ such that $n>\frac{1}{\epsilon} $ .

then $\epsilon>\frac{1}{n}$.

$1+\frac{1}{n} \in (1-\epsilon,1+\epsilon)$

how can I proof from here that $1+\frac{1}{n}$ is not an accumulation point.

Thank you

Best Answer

I'll prove that $1+1/m$ is not an accumulation point of the set $$ S=\left\{1+\frac{1}{n}\;\middle|\;n\in\mathbb{N},n>0\right\} $$ All I need to find is $\varepsilon>0$ such that $$ \left(1+\frac{1}{m}-\varepsilon,1+\frac{1}{m}+\varepsilon\right) \cap S=\left\{1+\frac{1}{m}\right\} $$ that is, the only solution of $$ 1+\frac{1}{m}-\varepsilon<1+\frac{1}{n}<1+\frac{1}{m}+\varepsilon $$ is $n=m$.

The two inequalities are the same as $$ \frac{1}{m}-\varepsilon<\frac{1}{n}<\frac{1}{m}+\varepsilon $$ It is not restrictive to assume $\varepsilon<1/m$, so the inequalities become $$ \frac{m}{1+m\varepsilon}<n<\frac{m}{1-m\varepsilon} $$ and it suffices to show we can take $\varepsilon$ so that $$ \frac{m}{1-m\varepsilon}-\frac{m}{1+m\varepsilon}<1 $$ because in this case the interval cannot contain more than one integer (and it always contains $m$).

This becomes $$ m+m^2\varepsilon-m+m^2\varepsilon<1-m^2\varepsilon^2 $$ that is $$ m^2\varepsilon^2+2m^2\varepsilon-1<0 $$ which is certainly satisfied for $$ 0<\varepsilon<\frac{-m^2+\sqrt{m^4+m^2}}{m^2}=\sqrt{1+\frac{1}{m^2}}-1 $$

An explicit value is $\varepsilon=\frac{1}{2m^2}$.