Show that the Boolean algebra of finite & cofinite subsets of $U$ is not complete

boolean-algebra

If $U$ is infinite, show that the Boolean algebra of subsets of $U$ that are finite or cofinite (i.e. their complement is finite) is not complete. A Boolean algebra $\mathcal{B}:=(B,\leq,\lor,\land,^c,0,1)$ is said to be complete if every non-empty subset of $B$ has a greatest lower bound (g.l.b).

Let $U'=\{X\subseteq U: X\text{ is finite, or}X^c=U\backslash X\text{ is finite}\}$. I think the Boolean algebra of concern here is $\mathcal{B}:= (U',\subseteq, \cup,\cap,^c,\phi, U)$, right?

From what I understand, the g.l.b operation here is just $\bigcap$, i.e. if $\phi\neq U''\subseteq U'$, then g.l.b($U''$) = $\bigcap_{z\in U''}z$, is that correct?

If that is the case, then the Boolean algebra looks complete* to me – which is contrary to what is required to be proved. Where am I going wrong?

*Looks complete because two sets will always have some intersection, empty or not!

Best Answer

It is closed under finite intersections, but completeness requires closure under arbitrary intersections. Let $X_i = U \setminus \{i\}$, where $i$ ranges over some infinite subset $I$ of $U$ such that $U \setminus I$ is also infinite (e.g., if $U = \Bbb{R}$, you could take $I = \Bbb{Z}$). Then $\bigcap_{i \in I} X_i = U \setminus I$ which is not in $U'$.

More formally, the family $\{X_i \mid i \in I\}$ has no g.l.b. because any finite (resp. cofinite) set $A$ such that $A \subseteq X_i$ for all $i$ must be a proper subset of $\bigcap_{i \in I} X_i = U \setminus I$ and hence can be extended to give a finite (resp. cofinite) set $B \supset A$ such that $B \subseteq X_i$ for all $i$.

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