Question about proof that $I \subset \mathbb{R}$ is a connected set.

connectednessreal-analysis

Let $I \subset \mathbb{R}$ be an interval or all of $\mathbb{R}$, then $I$ is a connected set.

Proof. Suppose $I$ is an interval but not connected, then we would have $I \subset U \cup V$ where $U$ and $V$ are both non-empty and open, $U \cap I \ne \emptyset$, $V \cap I \ne \emptyset$, and $U \cap V = \emptyset$. Let $a \in U$ and $b \in V$. Without loss of generality, we can assume that $a < b$ (otherwise just change the names of $U$ and $V$). Let $U_{1} = U \cap I \cap [a,b]$ and $V_{1}=V \cap I \cap [a,b]$. Then $U_{1}$ and $V_{1}$ are disjoint, non-empty sets because $a \in U_{1}$ and $b \in V_{1}$. Since $U_{1}$ is bounded, $c = \sup\{x: x \in U_{1}\} < \infty$. From $b \in V$, $a <b$, and $V$ being open, we know there is $\delta >0$ such that $(v-\delta, v) \subset V_{1}$. Let $\delta$ be the maximal choice that satisfies this inclusion in $V_{1}$ (this exists because we know $\delta \le b-a$). We then know $a \le c \le b-\delta$. Moreover, by the assumption on $\delta$, $c \notin V$, otherwise the openness of $V$ would allow us to increase $\delta$. Since $c$ is not the right limit of $I$, we also know that $c \notin U$, otherwise by the openness of $U$ and $c<b$, it would not be the supremum of $U_{1}$

I was hoping that someone could explain the following highlighted sentence.

Since $c$ is not the right limit of $I$, we also know that $c \notin U$, otherwise by the openness of $U$ and $c < b$, it would not be the supremum of $U_{1}$.

How do we know that $c$ is not the right limit of $I$? I also don't understand how we know that $c \notin U$, otherwise by the openness of $U$ and $c <b$, it would not be the supremum of $U_{1}$.

Best Answer

$c$ cannot be the right limit of $I$ because $c<b$ and $b\in I$.

$c\notin U$ because $c$ is the supremum of $U$, which is open. In other words, if $c\in U$, then some neighborhood of $c$ would be included in $U$, but then there would have to be a value greater than $c$ in $U$, which would mean that $c$ wasn't the supremum.