[Math] The closure of intersection of an open set with dense set is the closure of of the open set

analysisgeneral-topologyreal-analysis

It is actually problem 4.13 in Folland's Real Analysis.

If $X$ is a topological space, $U$ is open in X, $A$ is dense in X, then $\overline{A\cap U} = \overline{U}$.

This looks obvious since intersection of an open set with a dense set is dense in the open set. But Folland's book doesn't include the concepts of dense in a subset. It only mentions dense in topological space $X$. So how to approach this problem?

Thanks!

Best Answer

One inclusion should be obvious: $A \cap U \subset U$, so that $\overline {A \cap U} \subset \overline U$.

For the other, let $x \in \overline U$.

1)By definition, we know that for every neighbourhood $W_x$ of $x$ intersects with $U$,
and so gives rise to a nonempty open set $W_x\cap U$.

2)By definition of dense, every nonempty open set intersects $A$.

Use these facts to show that every neighbourhood of $x$ contains a point of $A \cap U$, so that $x \in \overline{A \cap U}$.

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