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A subset of Rn\mathbb{R}^n with the product topology is compact exactly when it is closed and bounded, the product topology being the Euclidean metric topology

Statement

Let nNn \in \mathbb{N} with n1n \ge 1, let Rn\mathbb{R}^n be the set of functions nRn \to \mathbb{R} (Rn\mathbb{R}^n as the set of functions nRn \to \mathbb{R}, and d1d_1, d2d_2, dd_\infty are metrics on it) carrying the product topology of nn copies of the usual topology of R\mathbb{R} (The product set iIXi\prod_{i \in I} X_i of functions choosing a point in each factor, the projections, the box topology, and the product topology as the initial topology of the projections; the empty product is a one-point space), and let d2d_2 be the Euclidean metric. Then:

  1. The product topology on Rn\mathbb{R}^n is the metric topology of d2d_2 (The metric topology: a set is open when every one of its points has a ball around it inside the set; closed means open complement), so Rn\mathbb{R}^n as a product and Rn\mathbb{R}^n as a metric space are one topological space, and it is metrizable (Metrizable space: a topological space whose topology is induced by some metric; metrizability is topological, the metric is not).
  2. A subset KRnK \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n is a compact subset for the product topology (Open cover, subcover, and compact topological space; a compact subset is a subspace that is compact in its own right) if and only if KK is closed in Rn\mathbb{R}^n and bounded (Bounded subset, diameter, distance from a point to a set, and distance between two sets in a metric space).

The hypothesis n1n \ge 1 is inherited from Rn\mathbb{R}^n as the set of functions nRn \to \mathbb{R}, and d1d_1, d2d_2, dd_\infty are metrics on it, which defines Rn\mathbb{R}^n and its three metrics only there; for n=0n = 0 the product is a one-point space and is compact. No choice principle is used: the metric statement it is read off from is proved by bisection (Heine-Borel in Rn\mathbb{R}^n: with the Euclidean metric a subset of Rn\mathbb{R}^n is compact if and only if it is closed and bounded, and the proof by bisection uses no choice principle; the same holds on the real line).

Facts & Assumptions

Given: A natural number n1n \ge 1, the set Rn\mathbb{R}^n of functions nRn \to \mathbb{R}, the product topology on it, and the Euclidean metric d2d_2.

[L2]

For a metric space with its metric topology, a subset is a compact subset in the metric sense exactly when it is a compact subset in the topological sense (For a metric space with its metric topology, compactness in the topological sense is compactness in the metric sense, and the two notions of compact subset coincide, claim 2).

Proof

technique · direct
1.1

By [L1] the product topology on Rn\mathbb{R}^n and the metric topology of d2d_2 are the same family of subsets of Rn\mathbb{R}^n, so a subset is open, or closed, for one exactly when it is for the other; this is claim 1.

L1
2.1

Applying [L2] to the metric space (Rn,d2)(\mathbb{R}^n, d_2), a subset KK is a compact subset of Rn\mathbb{R}^n for the topology of d2d_2 exactly when it is a compact subset of the metric space (Rn,d2)(\mathbb{R}^n, d_2); and by step 1.1 that topology is the product topology, so the same holds for the product topology.

L2L4step 1.1
3.1

Combining with [L3]: KK is a compact subset of Rn\mathbb{R}^n with the product topology exactly when KK is closed in Rn\mathbb{R}^n and bounded, which is claim 2.

L3step 1.1step 2.1

Remarks

This is a corollary in the strict sense. Nothing is reproved: claim 1 is For n1n \ge 1 the product topology on nn copies of the usual topology of R\mathbb{R} is the metric topology of dd_\infty on Rn\mathbb{R}^n, and hence also of d1d_1 and d2d_2, so Rn\mathbb{R}^n as a product and Rn\mathbb{R}^n as a metric space are one space, the passage between the two readings of "compact subset" is For a metric space with its metric topology, compactness in the topological sense is compactness in the metric sense, and the two notions of compact subset coincide, and the mathematical content of claim 2 is Heine-Borel in Rn\mathbb{R}^n: with the Euclidean metric a subset of Rn\mathbb{R}^n is compact if and only if it is closed and bounded, and the proof by bisection uses no choice principle; the same holds on the real line. What the corollary records is that the three fit together, so that a reader working in the product topology may use Heine-Borel without translating.

A second route to the compactness of a box. For reals akbka_k \le b_k the box k<n[ak,bk]\prod_{k<n} [a_k, b_k] is a product of finitely many compact spaces, each [ak,bk][a_k,b_k] being compact by claim 2 applied with n=1n = 1, so A product of finitely many compact spaces is compact in the product topology makes it compact using only the one-dimensional case of claim 2, and with it only the one-dimensional bisection. The two routes agree, as claim 1 requires; the bisection proof is the one that also delivers the converse.

Boundedness is metric and compactness is not. "Bounded" in claim 2 is a property of the metric d2d_2, not of the topology it induces: a metrizable space with at least two points carries, for every positive real DD, a compatible metric of diameter DD. What claim 2 says is that for this particular metric on this particular space the conjunction of closedness and boundedness detects compactness; the same conjunction fails to do so in a general metric space (FALSE: a closed and bounded subset of a metric space is compact).

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