Question on compactification of a space.

compactnessgeneral-topologyquotient-spacessolution-verification

Let $X$ be a compact Hausdorff space and $A \subseteq X$ be closed. Then show that one point compactification of $X \setminus A$ is homeomorphic to $X / A.$

$\textbf {My attempt} :$

What we know is that one point compactification of $X \setminus A$ is nothing but the space $Y = (X \setminus A) \cup \{\infty\}$ equipped with the topology $\tau_Y = \tau_1 \cup \tau_2,$ where $\tau_1$ is the topology on $X \setminus A$ and $\tau_2$ is given by $$\tau_2 : = \{Y \setminus C\ |\ C \subseteq X \setminus A\ \text {is compact} \}.$$ It is clear that as a set $X / A$ and $Y$ are in a bijective correspondence. There are obvious natural embeddings of $X \setminus A$ into the spaces $X / A$ and $Y$ and it is clear that both the spaces can be obtained by adjoining one single point to $X \setminus A$ (when viewed in terms of the embeddings). So in order to prove $Y$ is homeomorphic to $X/A$ it is enough to show that $X/A$ is compact and Hausdorff. Compactness of $X/A$ is clear as it is the image of the compact set $X$ under the quotient map $p : X \longrightarrow X/A.$ Also since $X$ is compact and Hausdorff it is normal and hence regular in particular and since $A \subseteq X$ is closed it follows that $X / A$ is Hausdorff. This proves the result.

Would anybody please have a look at my solution and check whether it holds good or not?

Thanks for reading.

Best Answer

We need to also assume that $A$ is not open. Let $x\in X\setminus A$, then since $X$ is compact Hausdorff, and $x\notin A$, there is a neighbourhood $U$ of $x$ whose closure is disjoint from $A$ and is compact (follows from the regularity of $X$). So, $X\setminus A$ is locally compact, Haudorff.

The restriction of the quotient map $q\colon X\to X/A$ to $X\setminus A$ is an injective continuous map whose image misses the point corresponding to $A$. Moreover, the closure of this image is $X/A$ because $A$ is not open (else $X\setminus A$ is already compact).

Being the continuous image of a compact set, $X/A$ is compact and by regularity of $X$, it is Hausdorff. By the uniqueness of one point compactification, $X/A$ is the one point compactification of $X\setminus A$.

Related Question