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Every quasicomponent is a closed union of components, so each component is contained in a quasicomponent, and the quasicomponents partition the space
Statement
Let be a topological space, let and be the component and the quasicomponent of (Connected components, quasicomponents, and totally disconnected spaces). Then:
- Containment. .
- Closedness. is closed in .
- Saturation. If then ; consequently for every , and so every quasicomponent is a union of components.
- Partition. The quasicomponents are nonempty, pairwise disjoint, and cover .
No converse is asserted. Claim 1 is an inclusion and this theorem does not claim it is an equality; the question of when is not settled on this page, and nothing here may be read as settling it.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A topological space , a point , and subsets carrying 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).
is the largest connected subset of containing , and is the intersection of all clopen with ; that family is nonempty, being clopen; every point lies in its own component (Connected components, quasicomponents, and totally disconnected spaces, The components of a space are its maximal connected subsets, they partition it, and each of them is closed, claims 1 and 2).
A connected space has no clopen subset other than and the whole space; a subset is connected exactly when the only subsets of clopen in are and (For a topological space the following agree: no separation exists, the only clopen subsets are and , and every continuous map to the two-point discrete space is constant, claims 1 and 2, Separation of a topological space, connected and disconnected spaces, clopen sets, and connected subsets).
The traces of open sets are the open sets of , and the traces of closed sets are the closed sets of (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 clopen set is closed; a nonempty intersection of closed sets is closed; the complement of a clopen set is clopen (Topology on a set, open and closed sets, clopen sets, the closed-set axiomatisation, and the coarser/finer comparison).
Proof
Let be clopen with . Then is both open and closed in the subspace by [A3], and it contains , so it is nonempty.
Every clopen also contains whenever : otherwise is a clopen set containing by [A4], so by [A1], contradicting .
is closed, being by [A1] the intersection of a nonempty family of clopen, hence closed, sets, and such an intersection is closed by [A4]; this is claim 2. And , every member of that family containing .
Since is connected by [A1], its only clopen subsets are and by [A2]; so step 1.1 forces , that is .
Let . Every clopen with contains , since by [A1], so ; hence . Conversely every clopen with contains by step 1.2, so and therefore . Thus .
As was an arbitrary clopen set containing , it follows that is contained in the intersection of all of them, that is ; this is claim 1.
So for one has by step 3.1 and step 2.2; and each such lies in by [A1], so . This is claim 3.
For claim 4: each is nonempty by step 1.3; if then and by step 2.2, so , and hence two quasicomponents are equal or disjoint; and by step 1.3, so they cover .
Remarks
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Where the inclusion can be strict, and why the proof cannot be improved. Step 2.1 uses connectedness of to promote "meets " to "is contained in ". Running the argument backwards would need every point of to be joined to by a connected set, and nothing in the definition of provides one: records only that no clopen set separates the two points. That gap is real and not an artefact of this proof.
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Both partitions are into closed sets, and they are nested. The components partition into closed sets (The components of a space are its maximal connected subsets, they partition it, and each of them is closed), the quasicomponents partition into closed sets by claims 2 and 4, and by claim 3 the second partition is coarser: every quasicomponent is a union of whole components.
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Claim 3 is what makes the notion useful. A clopen set never cuts a component in half, so any argument that produces a clopen set separating two points has automatically shown that they lie in different components. That implication runs only in this direction, which is exactly claim 1.
Depends on
- Connected components, quasicomponents, and totally disconnected spaces
- The components of a space are its maximal connected subsets, they partition it, and each of them is closed
- For a topological space the following agree: no separation exists, the only clopen subsets are $\varnothing$ and $X$, and every continuous map to the two-point discrete space is constant
- Separation of a topological space, connected and disconnected spaces, clopen sets, and connected subsets
- Topology on a set, open and closed sets, clopen sets, the closed-set axiomatisation, and the coarser/finer comparison
- 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
Used by
- In the subspace of ℝ² made of the vertical unit segments over 1/(n+1) together with the two points (0,0) and (0,1), the component of (0,0) is a singleton while its quasicomponent is {(0,0), (0,1)} Counterexample
- The zigzag curve and its closure worked out: the components, the path components, and the points at which local connectedness fails Example
- Which conventions this page fixes: the empty space and the one-point space, separated sets against disjoint open sets, and what is not developed here Remark
- In a compact Hausdorff space every quasicomponent is connected, so quasicomponents and components coincide Theorem
Dependency tree · next 3 levels
Direct dependencies and their dependencies through the next three levels: 33 results over 13 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
- Connected space (Wikipedia) (standard reference, not scraped)
- Locally connected space (Wikipedia) (standard reference, not scraped)
- The Stacks Project, Section 5.7: Connected components (standard reference, not scraped)