Math 185 Topology of C

June 21, 2010

1 Open Sets
Denition: Given two complex numbers z
1
and z
2
, we dene the distance from z
1
to
z
2
, d(z
1
, z
2
) as
d(z
1
, z
2
) = |z
1
z
2
| =

(Re(z
1
) Re(z
2
))
2
+ (Im(z
1
) Im(z
2
))
2
.
Note that for z
1
, z
2
and z
3
complex numbers, |z
1
z
3
| |z
1
z
2
| +|z
2
z
3
| so d is a
metric on C.
Notation: Given z C and > 0, we denote
B

(z) = {w C : |w z| < }.
Geometrically, B

(z) is the disk without boundary of radius centered at z.

Denition: We say that a subset U C is open if for any z U there exists
z
> 0
such that B(
z
) U.
Examples: B

(z) is open for any and z as are the punctured disks B

(z)\{z}. C and
the empty set are open. Any disk with boundary is not open. It is not hard to show
that an arbitrary union of open sets is open, and a nite intersection of open sets in
open. Note that innite intersections of open sets need not be open as illustrated by
the intersection

nN
B
1/n
(z) = {z}.
Denition: The interior of a set U C is dened to be the set
int(U) = {w U :
w
such that B
w
(w) U}.
1
One sees from this that int(U) is the largest open set contained in U. Note that it is
possible for int(U) to be empty (for example, U a singleton set).
Examples: The interior of any open set is itself. The interior of a disk with boundary
is the disk without the boundary. The interior of the set {q +ri : q, r Q} is empty.
2 Closed Sets and Limit Points
Denition: We say that a set C C is closed if C \ C is open.
Examples: C and are closed and in fact they are the only subsets of C which are
both open and closed (this requires some work. See math 104). The set B

(z) = {w :
|w z| } (i.e. a disk with boundary) is closed but B

(z) is not closed.

Denition: We say that z is a limit point of a set U C if for any > 0, B

(z)
intersects U in a place other than z. It is left for the reader to check that the set of
limit points of a set U is closed. Note that if U is a nite set, then the set of limit
points of U is empty. One checks that a set C is closed if and only if C contains all
of its limit points.
Examples: The set of limit points of the set B

(z) is B

(z) and the set of limit points

of the set {q + ri : q, r Q} is all of C.
Denition: The boundary of a set U C denoted U is the set
U = {z : > 0B

(z)

U = and B

(z)

(C \ U) = }.
Examples: The boundary of the set B

(z) is C

(z) = {w : |z w| = } i.e. the circle

of radius centered at z. The boundary of the set {q + ri : q, r Q} is all of C.
Denition: The closure U of a set U C is dened to be the intersection of all closed
sets containing U. Note that this is well dened since U C and C is closed. One
notes that this is the smallest closed set containing U. One can also show that U is
the union of U and its limit points and that U = U \ int(U).
Example: The closure of B

(z) is B

(z), the closure of {q + ri : q, r Q} is all of C.

Denition: We say a set U is dense in a larger set V if U

V = V . Note that this

implies B

(z) is dense in B

(z) and {q + ri : q, r Q} is dense in C.

3 Sequences and Continuous Functions
Denitions: A complex valued sequence is a function a : N C. The element a(n)
will be denoted a
n
and the sequence will be notated as either {a
n
}

n=1
or simply as
{a
n
}. A sequence {a
n
} is said to converge to an element a C if given > 0, there is
an N N such that n > N implies |a
n
a| < . Any sequence that does not converge
is said to diverge. It is not hard to see that a sequence can converge to at most one
point.
Denition We say a sequence {a
n
} is Cauchy if given > 0 there is an N N such that
m > N and n > N implies |a
n
a
m
| < . We note here that C is complete i.e. every
cauchy sequence converges. Using the completeness of R it is not hard to see this fact.
Denition: Let U C. The following two conditions are equivalent for a function
f : U C and z U:
1.) Given > 0 there is a > 0 such that for all w U, |w z| < implies
|f(w) f(z)| < .
2.) If {z
n
} is any sequence in U converging to z then f(z
n
) converges to f(z).
If either of these two conditions happen, we say that f is continuous as z. f is said
to be continuous on U if it is continuous at each z U.
Denition: Given a set V C we say that W V is relatively open if W = U

V
for U open in C. Note that any relatively open subset of an open set is open, but
there are non-open subsets of an arbitrary set that are relatively open. There is also
an obvious and analogous notion of W V being relatively closed.
Theorem: The following conditions are equivalent for a function f : V C:
1.) f is continuous on V .
2.) For each open U C the preimage set f
1
(U) = {z : f(z) U} is relatively open
in V .
3.) For each closed C C the preimage set f
1
(C) is relatively closed in V .
Examples of everything in this section will be given in class.
4 Compact Sets
The noted Heine-Borel theorem that holds for R also holds for C.
Theorem/Denition: For K C the following conditions are equivalent:
1.) K is bounded (i.e. there is some z C and R > 0 such that K B
R
(z)) and
closed.
2.) Every sequence in K has a convergent subsequence whose limit is in K i.e. if {z
n
}
is a sequence in K then there exists n
1
> n
2
> n
3
etc. so that the sequence {a
n
k
}

k=1
converges to a K.
3.) If {U
i
}
iI
is a collection of open sets such that K

iI
U
i
then there is a nite
set F I such that K

iF
U
i
. In other words, every open cover of K has a nite
subcover.
If one (hence all) condition(s) hold(s) then we say that K is compact.
A good exercise is to prove that the continuous image of a compact set is compact.
It is often easiest to show that a given set is compact by showing that it is closed and
bounded; however, when dealing with continuous functions or an abstract compact
set, the latter two conditions are more natural to use (and work better in the setting
of abstract metric spaces).
5 Connected Sets
Denition: We say that a set U C is connected if whenever U = U
1

U
2
with
U
1
and U
2
disjoint and relatively open then either U
1
or U
2
is empty (so the other
set must be all of U). Examples of connected sets include open and closed balls as
described above as well as intervals. It is a good exercise to show that the continuous
image of a connected set is connected.
Denition: A path joining a point z
1
C to a point z
2
C is a continuous function
: [a, b] C such that (a) = z
1
and (b) = z
2
.
Denition: We say that a set U C is path connected if and two points in U can be
joined by a path whose image lies entirely in U. We will use the connectedness of an
interval to show that a path connected set is also connected. There exist connected
sets that are not path connected as will be shown in class. It is an exercise to show
that if U is open in addition to being connected, then U is path connected.