How statement and proof provenance work
The first chip identifies the source of the statement or construction; the second identifies the source of its local proof or verification.
- Literature-sourced: the exact statement appears in a cited source; only wording and notation differ.
- AI-adapted: a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
- AI-generated: a genuinely novel statement formulated by AI, with no source for the claim itself.
These labels describe origin, not correctness: citations and verification chips remain separate evidence.
The graph of the piecewise-linear map oscillating between and on the intervals is path-connected, its closure adds the segment , and that closure is connected, is not path-connected because no path joins the segment to the graph, and is not locally connected
Statement
Write for the canonical natural of (The canonical natural of a field), so that means , and recall that contains . For put
so that and (Intervals of : the nine order-convex forms, nondegeneracy, and length). Define for even and for odd, and let
be the function that is affine on each with for every ; explicitly, for ,
The two clauses agree at each shared endpoint , both giving , so is a well-defined function; ; and on each the map runs affinely between and , so it takes both values and on , at the two endpoints. Let
the graph of , with carrying the product topology, which is the metric topology of (For the product topology on copies of the usual topology of is the metric topology of on , and hence also of and , so as a product and as a metric space are one space, as the set of functions , and , , are metrics on it, Metrizable space: a topological space whose topology is induced by some metric; metrizability is topological, the metric is not), and let subsets carry the subspace topology (Subspace topology: the traces of the open sets, its closed sets and its bases, the continuity of the inclusion, and the characteristic property of a map into a subspace). Then:
- is continuous, and is homeomorphic to ; hence is path-connected (Paths, path-connected spaces and path components), connected, and locally connected (Locally connected and locally path-connected spaces: a neighbourhood base of open connected, respectively open path-connected, sets at every point).
- The closure is .
- is connected (Separation of a topological space, connected and disconnected spaces, clopen sets, and connected subsets).
- is not path-connected; more precisely, no path in joins a point of to a point of .
- is not locally connected at any point , , so it is not locally connected.
There is no trigonometric function anywhere in this construction. Every piece of is affine, and the oscillation comes from the alternating endpoint values alone.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: The intervals , the function , the graph , and with the product topology; denote the two projections.
An affine map of into is continuous: , so for the ball of radius around maps into the ball of radius , and a constant map is continuous outright (Open ball, closed ball and sphere in a metric space, Metrizable space: a topological space whose topology is induced by some metric; metrizability is topological, the metric is not, The absolute value makes a metric space: is a metric, its open balls are the intervals , and it is unbounded, 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, Continuity of a map of topological spaces at a point and globally).
Continuity may be checked on any open cover and on any finite closed cover, and composites and restrictions of continuous maps are continuous (Continuity may be checked on any open cover, and on any finite closed cover; composites of continuous maps are continuous, claims 1, 2, 3, Subspace topology: the traces of the open sets, its closed sets and its bases, the continuity of the inclusion, and the characteristic property of a map into a subspace); a map is continuous at every point exactly when is closed for every closed in the codomain (For a map of spaces the following agree: continuity at every point, preimages of open sets open, preimages of closed sets closed, preimages of subbasic open sets open, and , clauses (a) and (c)).
A map into a product is continuous exactly when both components are; the projections are continuous; the sets form a basis of , being the -balls and their finite intersections (A map into a product is continuous iff each of its components is; the projections are continuous and open; and each projection is surjective when every factor is nonempty, which for an infinite index set uses the Axiom of Choice, The product set 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, For the product topology on copies of the usual topology of is the metric topology of on , and hence also of and , so as a product and as a metric space are one space, as the set of functions , and , , are metrics on it, 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).
A subset of is a connected subset exactly when it is order-convex; a continuous real-valued map on a connected space has order-convex image (The connected subspaces of with its usual topology are exactly the order-convex subsets, the published characterisation transported by the identification of the two descriptions of "open in ", A real-valued continuous map on a connected space has order-convex image, so it takes every value between any two of its values, Intervals of : the nine order-convex forms, nondegeneracy, and length, A continuous image of a connected space is connected, and connectedness is a topological property).
exactly when every basic open set containing meets ; is closed exactly when ; for the closure of in is (A point lies in the closure of iff every basic neighbourhood of it meets ; the closure is the smallest closed superset and equals together with its derived set, Interior, closure, boundary, exterior, derived set and isolated point in a topological space, For the closure of in is , while the interior only contains , with equality when is open; and a dense subset of traces to a dense subset of every open , Topology on a set, open and closed sets, clopen sets, the closed-set axiomatisation, and the coarser/finer comparison).
If is connected and then is connected; a path-connected space is connected (If is connected and then is connected; in particular the closure of a connected set is connected, Every path-connected space is connected, and every path component lies inside a component).
For every real there is a natural with (For every in a complete ordered field there is a natural with , The canonical natural of a field).
A nonempty subset of bounded above has a least upper bound, and for every some element of it exceeds (Complete ordered field (least-upper-bound property), Epsilon characterisation of the supremum).
is locally connected at when every open contains an open connected with ; a homeomorphism carries such a to , which is connected as a continuous image and open because a homeomorphism is an open map, so local connectedness is a topological property (Locally connected and locally path-connected spaces: a neighbourhood base of open connected, respectively open path-connected, sets at every point, A continuous image of a connected space is connected, and connectedness is a topological property claim 1, Homeomorphism, open map, closed map, embedding, and what it means for a property to be topological).
Proof
is continuous. For the restriction of to the closed set is continuous, being affine on each of the two closed pieces by [A1] and agreeing at the shared endpoint, so the finite closed cover clause of [A2] applies with two pieces; likewise is affine, hence continuous, on .
is order-convex, hence a connected subset of by [A4], and it is path-connected: for the map is continuous by [A1] and takes values in by order-convexity.
is locally connected: a basic open subset of it is the trace of an interval of , hence order-convex, hence connected by [A4]; so the open connected subsets form a neighbourhood base at each of its points, which is [A9].
. Let . Every point of lies in , which is closed, being a product of closed sets whose complement is a union of basic open sets; so by [A5]. If the point lies in .
A second consequence, used twice below: for every real there are with and . Indeed [A7] gives a natural with ; with the interval , and the two endpoints of carry the values and , which are and in one order or the other.
The sets for , together with , form an open cover of in its subspace topology, and restricted to each is a restriction of one of the continuous maps of step 1.1; so is continuous by the open cover clause of [A2].
The map , , is continuous by [A3], its components being the inclusion and , both continuous by step 2.1 and [A2]; it is injective, since determines ; and its image is .
. Let and let be a basic open set containing . By [A7] there is a natural with , and putting the interval lies in , since . As runs affinely between and on , [A4] gives with : the image of under is order-convex and contains and , hence contains and every point near it inside . Then lies in the basic set, so by [A5].
The corestriction is a continuous bijection by step 3.1 and [A2], and its inverse is the restriction of to , which is continuous by [A3] and [A2]; so is a homeomorphism and .
Suppose instead , so and is defined. Let . By step 2.1 and [A3] there is such that for every . The basic set contains , hence meets by [A5] in a point ; then . As was arbitrary, and . With step 3.2 and step 1.4 this proves claim 2.
Claim 5. Fix and let , an open subset of containing . Suppose is open in , connected, with . Then contains a set for some by [A3], and that set meets by step 3.2, at a point whose first coordinate satisfies .
Hence is path-connected, connected and locally connected, these being carried across the homeomorphism of step 4.1 from step 1.2 and step 1.3, using [A6] for connectedness and [A9] for local connectedness. This is claim 1.
A useful consequence of claim 2, used twice below: if has then , so .
Claim 4. Suppose is a path with and , and write and , both continuous by [A3] and [A2]. Then is closed in , being the preimage of the closed set , it contains , and since .
Claim 3: is connected by step 5.1 and , so is connected by [A6].
Let , which exists by [A8]. Every open set containing contains an interval around it, which by [A8] meets ; so , and is closed in while , so by [A5]. Hence and .
So is a connected subset of by [A2, A3, A4], hence order-convex, and it contains and ; therefore . By step 1.5 with there are with and , so contains points with , and by step 5.2.
By continuity of at there is with and for all ; put . Moreover , since puts outside while everywhere by step 1.4.
The restriction of to is continuous on a connected space by [A4] and step 1.2, so its image is order-convex and contains and ; hence lies in that image. By step 1.5 with there are with and , and therefore with .
By step 5.2, , so and ; but both lie within of by step 7.1, giving , which is false. So no such path exists, and since contains points of both kinds by claim 2, it is not path-connected. This is claim 4.
Hence contains a point with second coordinate and a point with second coordinate , both of which must lie in because ; that gives , which is false. So no such exists and is not locally connected at , by [A9]; this is claim 5.
Remarks
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Why continuity is checked on an OPEN cover and never on the closed one. The intervals form a closed cover of with infinitely many members, and the closed pasting lemma is false for infinite covers, the standing witness being covered by its closed singletons: every restriction of the indicator of is continuous and the map is not, so the closed pasting lemma needs finiteness. The proof therefore pastes only two closed pieces at a time, producing continuity on a slightly larger closed interval, and then uses the open cover clause, which carries no finiteness restriction.
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What each claim is for. Claim 3 with claim 4 gives a connected space that is not path-connected; claim 1 with claim 4 gives a path-connected set whose closure is not path-connected; claim 1 with claim 5 gives a locally connected set whose closure is not locally connected. Each of the three is used as a witness later on this page.
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The failure is exactly at the added segment. By claim 2 the only points of not in are those of , and claim 5 locates the failure of local connectedness at each of them. At every point of the space still looks like , since is open in — its complement is closed — so no pathology occurs away from the segment.
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Both endpoint values are attained on every piece, and that is the whole mechanism. The proof never uses any property of beyond continuity and the fact recorded in step 5.3: arbitrarily close to the function takes the value and the value . Any function with that property and a path-connected graph would serve.
Depends on
- Separation of a topological space, connected and disconnected spaces, clopen sets, and connected subsets
- Paths, path-connected spaces and path components
- Locally connected and locally path-connected spaces: a neighbourhood base of open connected, respectively open path-connected, sets at every point
- Homeomorphism, open map, closed map, embedding, and what it means for a property to be topological
- If $A$ is connected and $A \subseteq B \subseteq \overline{A}$ then $B$ is connected; in particular the closure of a connected set is connected
- A continuous image of a connected space is connected, and connectedness is a topological property
- The connected subspaces of $\mathbb{R}$ with its usual topology are exactly the order-convex subsets, the published characterisation transported by the identification of the two descriptions of "open in $\mathbb{R}$"
- A real-valued continuous map on a connected space has order-convex image, so it takes every value between any two of its values
- Every path-connected space is connected, and every path component lies inside a component
- Subspace topology: the traces of the open sets, its closed sets and its bases, the continuity of the inclusion, and the characteristic property of a map into a subspace
- For $A \subseteq S \subseteq X$ the closure of $A$ in $S$ is $\overline{A}^{X} \cap S$, while the interior only contains $\operatorname{int}^{X}(A) \cap S$, with equality when $S$ is open; and a dense subset of $X$ traces to a dense subset of every open $S$
- For $n \ge 1$ the product topology on $n$ copies of the usual topology of $\mathbb{R}$ is the metric topology of $d_\infty$ on $\mathbb{R}^n$, and hence also of $d_1$ and $d_2$, so $\mathbb{R}^n$ as a product and $\mathbb{R}^n$ as a metric space are one space
- The product set $\prod_{i \in I} X_i$ 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
- A map into a product is continuous iff each of its components is; the projections are continuous and open; and each projection is surjective when every factor is nonempty, which for an infinite index set uses the Axiom of Choice
- 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
- The absolute value makes $\mathbb{R}$ a metric space: $d(x,y) = |x-y|$ is a metric, its open balls are the intervals $(x-r, x+r)$, and it is unbounded
- $\mathbb{R}^n$ as the set of functions $n \to \mathbb{R}$, and $d_1$, $d_2$, $d_\infty$ are metrics on it
- Metrizable space: a topological space whose topology is induced by some metric; metrizability is topological, the metric is not
- Open ball, closed ball and sphere in a metric space
- Continuity of a map of topological spaces at a point and globally
- For a map of spaces the following agree: continuity at every point, preimages of open sets open, preimages of closed sets closed, preimages of subbasic open sets open, and $f(\overline{A}) \subseteq \overline{f(A)}$
- Continuity may be checked on any open cover, and on any finite closed cover; composites of continuous maps are continuous
- Intervals of $\mathbb{R}$: the nine order-convex forms, nondegeneracy, and length
- For every $\varepsilon > 0$ in a complete ordered field there is a natural $n \ge 1$ with $1/n < \varepsilon$
- The canonical natural $\iota(n) = n \cdot 1_F$ of a field
- A point lies in the closure of $A$ iff every basic neighbourhood of it meets $A$; the closure is the smallest closed superset and equals $A$ together with its derived set
- Interior, closure, boundary, exterior, derived set and isolated point in a topological space
- Topology on a set, open and closed sets, clopen sets, the closed-set axiomatisation, and the coarser/finer comparison
- Epsilon characterisation of the supremum
- Complete ordered field (least-upper-bound property)
Used by
- The zigzag curve and its closure worked out: the components, the path components, and the points at which local connectedness fails Example
- FALSE: every connected space is locally connected False statement
- FALSE: every connected topological space is path-connected False statement
- FALSE: the closure of a path-connected subspace is path-connected False statement
Dependency tree · next 3 levels
Direct dependencies and their dependencies through the next three levels: 148 results over 23 levels. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, and this result sits at the bottom with a heavier outline. Click the chart to enlarge it.
Sources
- Topologist's sine curve (Wikipedia) (standard reference, not scraped)
- Connected space (Wikipedia) (standard reference, not scraped)
- Locally connected space (Wikipedia) (standard reference, not scraped)
- Keith Conrad, Spaces That Are Connected but Not Path-Connected (standard reference, not scraped)