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DMC implies Urysohn's lemma
Statement
proves Urysohn's lemma: in a normal space (Normal spaces and spaces, with the source disagreement over whether normality includes stated explicitly) any two disjoint closed sets admit a continuous (Continuity of a map of topological spaces at a point and globally, Intervals of : the nine order-convex forms, nondegeneracy, and length) with and .
DMC is used once, in its successor-menu form of Dependent multiple choice in finite-level tree form: it supplies the finite menus of dyadic nodes, and the finitely many open sets inside each menu are intersected coordinatewise to obtain a single dyadic scale.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A normal space ; disjoint closed sets ; the principle DMC.
Normality via shrinking: if is closed, is open and , then there is open with (A space is normal if and only if every closed inside an open admits an open with ).
The dyadic rationals are an increasing union of finite levels , the level inserts one new point strictly between each pair of -consecutive elements, every two elements of lie in a common , and the positive dyadics have infimum zero (the displayed dyadic growth bound gives ) (The dyadic rationals of , their finite levels , and their density in ).
Dyadic scale lemma: if are open subsets of with whenever and , then is a continuous map (If are open with whenever and , then is a continuous map , and no choice principle is used).
Finite choice: a finite list indexed by a natural number, all of whose entries are nonempty sets admits a choice function for its family of values (Every natural-number-indexed list of nonempty sets has a choice function on its family of values).
DMC: every serial relation on a nonempty set admits nonempty finite successor menus (Dependent multiple choice in finite-level tree form).
Closure and union: the closure of a finite union is the union of the closures, a finite intersection of open sets is open, and is the smallest closed superset of ; closed sets are complements of open sets (Interior, closure, boundary, exterior, derived set and isolated point in a topological space, Interior commutes with finite intersections and closure with finite unions, while the two reverse combinations are inclusions only and both fail for infinite families; the space is the disjoint union of interior, boundary and exterior, Topology on a set, open and closed sets, clopen sets, the closed-set axiomatisation, and the coarser/finer comparison).
A nonempty subset of has a least element, and a specified set self-map with an initial state admits recursion on (The well-ordering principle, The recursion theorem).
Proof
Assume DMC, let be normal and let be disjoint closed subsets of .
Under step 1.1, is open and ; by [F1] fix open with , and put .
Under step 1.1, define a node of level to be a tuple of open subsets of such that for , , and . Let be the set of such nodes over all , and let the relation on be: when is a node of level whose even entries are the entries of , that is for .
Under step 3.1, is a node of level in : it has the single required entry, and its last entry is , so . And is serial on : given a node , apply [F1] to the closed set inside the open set to obtain an open with , for each apply [F1] to the closed set inside the open set to obtain an open with , and use [F4] to choose all of at once (when one may take to be the of step 2.1, which has exactly the required inclusions); then has entries, its even entries are for , and , for , by step 3.1, so is a node of level with .
Under step 4.1, apply [F5] to obtain finite nonempty menus . They need not be level-aligned. Let be the least level represented in by [L2] and let consist of its level- members. Define . This is a definable recursion (encode the index and subset in a set state, with a default for other states), licensed by [L2]. Induction shows that is nonempty finite, every member has level , and the have both successor and predecessor properties: each retained has a successor in the original next menu and that successor is retained. To recover levels below , for a level- node and put for . Each projection is a level- node: all entries contain , the last is , and the closure inclusions follow by skipping along the original chain. Moreover and . Now put for , and for . These are nonempty finite menus of exactly level , with both predecessor and successor properties, including the transition into level . In particular . No enumeration of infinitely many finite menus or branch choice is made.
Under step 5.1, for and put , the intersection of the -th entries of the finitely many menu elements; each is open, , , and , because the intersection is contained in every entry, its closure is contained in every entry closure by monotonicity, and each such closure is contained in the corresponding next entry. Monotonicity follows directly from the smallest-closed-superset characterization in [L1].
Under step 6.1, for all and : every has for the predecessor with , and every occurs as the predecessor of some by the successor property, so the two intersections have the same entries.
Under step 7.1 define a family on all dyadics by , , and, for , whenever with . This is well defined by step 7.1 and [F2]. If , choose with , and by [F2]; then , , and by step 6.1. The same inclusion is automatic when or . Thus satisfies the hypotheses of [F3] literally.
Under step 8.1, [F3] applies to the scale and gives the continuous .
Under step 9.1, : if and , then , and also . Hence , whose infimum is , so .
Under step 9.1, : for , first . For with we have , and , so ; also ; hence and .
Under steps 9.1, 10.1 and 10.2 the map is continuous with and , which is Urysohn's lemma for the arbitrary normal space and disjoint closed sets ; the only choice principle used was DMC.
Remarks
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Comparison with the dependent-choice proof. The published Urysohn's lemma, under the axiom of dependent choice: in a normal space two disjoint closed sets are separated by a continuous function into , and conversely such a space is normal runs the same dyadic construction under DC, choosing one new open set at a time by dependent choice. Here the menus are finite, so a whole level of the scale is obtained at once, and the only price is DMC, without inferring a single branch from the menus.
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Where the finite intersections enter. Passing from the finite menus to the single scale values is the step that makes the construction a proof in : a finite intersection of open sets is open, its closure is contained in the intersection of the closures, and the coherence verified in step 7.1 makes the resulting values nest along the dyadic refinement.
Depends on
- Dependent multiple choice in finite-level tree form
- Normal spaces and $T_4$ spaces, with the source disagreement over whether normality includes $T_1$ stated explicitly
- A space is normal if and only if every closed $A$ inside an open $U$ admits an open $V$ with $A \subseteq V \subseteq \overline{V} \subseteq U$
- The dyadic rationals of $[0,1]$, their finite levels $D_n$, and their density in $[0,1]$
- If $(U_r)_{r \in D}$ are open with $\overline{U_r} \subseteq U_s$ whenever $r < s$ and $U_1 = X$, then $x \mapsto \inf\{ r \in D : x \in U_r \}$ is a continuous map $X \to [0,1]$, and no choice principle is used
- Every natural-number-indexed list of nonempty sets has a choice function on its family of values
- Continuity of a map of topological spaces at a point and globally
- 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
- Intervals of $\mathbb{R}$: the nine order-convex forms, nondegeneracy, and length
- Interior commutes with finite intersections and closure with finite unions, while the two reverse combinations are inclusions only and both fail for infinite families; the space is the disjoint union of interior, boundary and exterior
- The natural numbers $\mathbb{N}$ (von Neumann)
- A function is a relation $f$ with $(a,b) \in f$ and $(a,c) \in f$ implying $b = c$; $f : A \to B$, the value $f(a)$, domain and codomain
- Urysohn's lemma, under the axiom of dependent choice: in a normal space two disjoint closed sets are separated by a continuous function into $[0,1]$, and conversely such a space is normal
- The well-ordering principle
- The recursion theorem
Used by
Dependency tree · two levels
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Sources
- David Fremlin, Dependent multiple choice and Baire's theorem (standard reference, not scraped)
- alg-d, Urysohn no hodai (Urysohn's lemma) (standard reference, not scraped)