[Math] Is it true that every closed set is a countable intersection of open intervals

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Motivation:

We know that every open set is a countable union of open intervals with rational endpoints and that every open interval is a countable union of closed intervals. Hence every open set is a countable union of closed intervals. It follows by De Morgan's laws that every closed set is a countable intersection of open sets.

I would like to ask if we can prove a stronger result that

every closed set is a countable intersection of open intervals.

Thank you for your help!

Best Answer

The answer is no, since an intersection of intervals is also an interval. Thus, if a closed set were to be a countable intersection of open intervals, it would have to be a closed interval, but there are closed sets that are not intervals.

For example (as @AlbertoTakase mentions in the comments below), consider the set $\{0\} \cup \{1\}$. This is a closed set since finite subsets of $\Bbb{R}$ are closed, but it is clearly not a closed interval. Hence, it cannot be written as a countable intersection of open intervals.