[Math] Is the decreasing sequence of non empty compact sets non empty and compact

compactnessgeneral-topologymetric-spacestopological-vector-spaces

I saw the following three Theorems in my Topology class, that were left as a exercise:

Theorem 1: Let $(E,d)$ be a compact metric space and $(K_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ a decreasing sequence of non empty closed sets, then $\bigcap_{n \in \mathbb{N}} K_n$ $\neq \emptyset$.

Theorem 2: Let $(E,\mathcal{T})$ be a compact Hausdorff space and $(K_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ a decreasing sequence of compact non empty closed sets, then $ \bigcap_{n \in \mathbb{N}} K_n$ $\neq \emptyset$.

Theorem 3: Let $(E,\mathcal{T})$ be a compact Hausdorff space and $(K_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ a decreasing sequence of compact non empty closed sets, then $K_{\infty} := \bigcap_{n \in \mathbb{N}} K_n$ $\neq \emptyset$ and $K_{\infty}$ is compact.

Why are they true?

Best Answer

Let say $\bigcap_{n \in \mathbb{N}} K_n=\emptyset$ . Then $(\bigcap_{n \in \mathbb{N}} K_n)^c=\emptyset^c$. It means $\bigcup_{n \in \mathbb{N}} K_n^c=E$, so the familly $\{K_n^c:n\in \mathbb{N} \}$ is open cover of $E$. Since $E$ is compact we have a finite subcover of the familly. It means there exists a finite subset $S$ of $ \mathbb{N}$ such that $\bigcup_{n \in S} K_n^c=E$. So $(\bigcup_{n \in S} K_n^c)^c=E^c$, it means $\bigcap_{n \in S} K_n=\emptyset$. Buy using decreasing property of the sequence, we have the smallest one of the familly $\{K_n:n\in S\}$. Say it is $K_{n_0}$ and so $K_{n_0}=\bigcap_{n \in S} K_n=\emptyset$. But all the $K_n$'s are non-empty. This is contradiction.

For the third one. $K_{\infty}$ is compact since it is closed and subset of a compact set say $K_n$

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