[Math] The complement of a first category set in X is a set of second category.

baire-categoryfunctional-analysismetric-spacesreal-analysis

Let X be a complete metric space. Then the complement of a first category set in X is a set of second category in X.

What is explain in my class is "if the complement of a first category set is a set of first category, then the entire space would be countable unions of nowhere dense sets, which is not the case in complete metric space." Please explain it.

Best Answer

Firstly, $X$ must be non-empty for the claim as stated to be true. Instead of giving you the answer, here is a situation that if you understand it, and the definition of first and second category, then you'll understand your situation too.

Suppose that $S$ is an uncountable set. Then if $T$ is a countable subset of $S$, then $S\setminus T$ must be uncountable. Why? since the union of two countable sets is countable, so if both $T$ and $S\setminus T$ were countable, then $S$, their union, would be countable too.

So, back to your (non-empty!) complete metric space $X$. Do you know why $X$ is of second category? Can you show that the union of two first category spaces is of first category?