[Math] Finding the connected components of topological spaces

connectednessgeneral-topology

Find the connected components of the following sets: $(a) \; A=\{(x,y):y=\sin(1/x), x\in\mathbb{R}^+\},(b)\;A\cup\{(x,y):x=0,y\in[-1,1]\},(c)\;$The Cantor Set,$(d)\;\mathbb{N}$ with the cofinite topology.

I tried to solve them as follows, I'm unsure if what I did is correct

$(a)$ $\sin(1/x)$ is continuous in $(0,+\infty)$ and $\mathbb{R}^+$ is connected. Since any continuous image of a connected space is connected, the set $A$ is connected. Being $A$ connected, the set has only one component, the set $A$ itself.

$(b)$ The vertical segment is connected but has no intersection with the set $A$, then their union cannot be connected but each set ($A$ and the vertical segment) are the connected components of the space.

$(c)$ The Cantor Set is totally disconnected and since the only connected spaces in the real line are intervals, the components of the space are the ones of the form $\{x\}$.

$(d)$ I have no clue. If I had to give an answer, I'd is connected because the open sets here have the form $\{\dots,m-2,m-2,m\}\cup\{n,n+1,n+2\}$ then the sets of the form $\{a,a+1,\dots,a+k\}$ are closed sets and $\mathbb{N}$ can't be written as the union of two closed set of the last kind (taking $\{a,\dots, a+k_1\}\cup\{b,\dots,b+k_2\}$ $(a-1)$ is not in the set).

What further argument could a give to $(b)$?, and are the answers ok? (specially (d), which left me baffled).

Best Answer

In the case of (d) $\mathbb{N}$ is connected, since suppose we had a separation into two nonempty open disjoint subsets: $\mathbb{N}=U \cup V$. We know $U= \mathbb{N}-\{n_1,...,n_k\}$ and that $V=\mathbb{N}-\{m_1,...,m_l\}$. Now $U$ and $V$ can't be disjoint, as we can pick some natural number $n \notin \{n_1,...,n_k,m_1,...m_l\}$ and it is in both $U$ and $V$.

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