Real Analysis

1.0 Sets
Set is a collection of well-defined objects or elements.
By well defined, we mean there is no confusion regarding inclusion or exclusion of objects.
The objects of a set are called the members or elements of the set and their membership is
defined by the certain conditions. Sets are usually denoted with capital letters and the members
of the set are denoted by small letters. Suppose, S be the set and x is a member of S, then we will
write x  S .
Following notations will be used for some of the specific sets that are commonly used :
- The set of all natural numbers.
- The set of all integers.
- The set of all rational numbers.
- The set of all real numbers.

Subset : If every element of a set A is also an element of a set B, then A is called a subset of B
and it is denoted by A  B .

1.1 Equivalent sets

Equality of sets : Two sets A and B are equal, if every element of A belongs to B and every
element of B belongs to A. Symbolically, it is written as A= B
Two sets are said to be equivalent, if they have same cardinality.

The main difference between a finite and an infinite set is that every infinite set is equivalent
to at least one of its proper subset whereas a finite set can never be equivalent to any of its proper
subset.

Example.: Is the set of natural number and integer are equivalent?

Solution:
Consider f: →
2x + 1 ; x  0
given by f(x) = 
−2x ;x  0
f is 1 – 1 and onto
Hence, and have same cardinality, so, set of natural number and integer are
equivalent.

1.2 Countably Infinite Set

A set A is said to be countably infinite if it is equivalent to set of natural numbers.
A countably infinite set is also known as denumerable or enumerable set.

Example: Set of integers, set of even natural numbers are examples of countably infinite sets.

1.3 Countable Set and Uncountable Set

A set A is said to be countable set if it is
(i) empty set
(ii) finite set
(iii) Countably infinite set
 A set which is not countable is known as uncountable.
Example: [0, 1] is uncountable.

Note:
(i) If A and B are countable sets, then Cartesian product of A and B (A × B) is also
countable.
(ii) Countable union of countable set is again a countable set.
(iii) A subset of countable set is again countable.
(iv) Every superset of uncountable set is uncountable.
(v) Interval is uncountable.
(vi) If A is uncountable set and B is countable set then
A – B is uncountable
Example: − is countable. ( is uncountable and is countable)

Example: The set of all continuous function over are uncountable.

Results :
1. Subset of a countable set is a countable.
2. Subset of a uncountable set may be finite or denumerable or uncountable.
3. Superset of a finite set may be finite or denumerable or uncountable.
4. Superset of a denumerable set is either denumerable or uncountable.
5. Superset of a uncountable set is uncountable

2.0 Real Number System

2.1 Ordered Structure
A number system A is said to be an ordered structure if it satisfies the following four properties.

1. Law of Trichotomy: If a & b are the two elements of number system then either a = b
or a < b or a > b.
2. Law of Transitivity: If a, b, and c are three number from number system then a > b and
b > c  a > c.
3. a > b  a + c > b + c.  a, b,c  A
4. If a, b,  A and c > 0 a > b  ac > bc.

Example: Every subset of as well as is an ordered structure, but set of complex

number is not an ordered structure.

Example: − N, − N, − are all ordered structures.

2.2 Bounded Above

A set A is set to be bounded above if there exist a number k such that  a  A, a  k

Example: Consider the set of negative integers

−
= {…, – 3, – 2, – 1}
 a  − , a  −1
−
 is bounded above
Example: The intervals (a,b), [a,b] , (−, a ), (−, a ] all are bounded above sets whereas
(a, ),[ a, ) , ( −,  ) are unbounded above sets.
2.3 Bounded Below
A set A is bounded below if there exist a number such that  a  A,  a.

Example: Consider the set of all positive integer

+
0 = {0, 1, 2, …}
+
0 is bounded below because each a  0.
Example: The intervals (a,b), [a,b] , (a, ),[ a, ) all are bounded below sets whereas
(−, a ), (−, a ] , ( −,  ) are unbounded below sets.

Bounded Set :A non-empty set A of is said to be bounded if it is bounded above as well as

bounded below.
Example: A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} is bounded.
Unbounded set : A non-empty subset A of is said to be unbounded set if it unbounded either
way i.e., either it is unbounded above or unbounded below or both.

2.4 Upper bound and lower bound of a set

Let A be a non-empty subset of
A number u is said to be an upper bound of a set A if  a  A; a  u.
A number is said to be a lower bound of set A if  a  A; a  .

2.5 Least upper bound and Greatest lower bound.

Let A be a non-empty subset of .
A number M is said to be least upper bound (supremum) of a set A
(i) If M is an upper bound
(ii) If u is an upper bound of A, then M  u.

A number m is said to be greatest lower bound (infimum) of a set A

(i) If m is a lower bound.
(ii) If is lower bound of A, then  m.

1 
Example: S =  n 
n 
x  1 x  S
any upper bound of S  1
So, 1 is supremum of S
Also, 0 is infimum of S.

2.6 Completeness property of a number system

A number system is said to be complete if every subset from the number system which is
bounded below (above) has infimum (supremum) in the number system.
1 
Example: S =  n   is complete
n 
Example: 1.Set of rational number is not complete number system.
2.The set of real numbers is complete.
 2.7 Archimedean Property
If a and b are two positive real numbers, then there exists a natural number n, such that na > b.

1
Corollary 1.Given any  > 0, there exists n  such that  .
n
Corollary 2. If a > 0, then there exists a natural number n such that n > a .
Corollary 3. For any real number x, there exist two integers m and n such that m < x< n .
Corollary 4. For any real number x, there exists a unique integer n such that n<x < n +1.

Note:1. Between two distinct real numbers, there are infinitely many rational numbers. (This
fact is sometimes expressed by saying that rational numbers are dense.)
2. Between two distinct real numbers, there are infinitely many irrational numbers.

2.8 Neighbourhood
A subset A of is called a neighbourhood of a point p  if there exist  > 0 such that
( p− , p+ )  A
A subset A of is called a neighbourhood of a point p  if there exists an open interval (a,b)
such that p  (a, b)  A .
Note : If a set A  does not contain an open interval then A cannot be neighbourhood of any
real number.
Results :
1. Any superset of the neighbourhood of a point is also a neighbourhood of that point.
2. The intersection of two neighbourhoods of a point is also a neighbourhood of that point. Remark
: Arbitrary intersection of neighbourhoods of a point need not be a neighbourhood of that point.

 1 1  1 1
For example,  − ,  is a neighbourhood of 0 for every n  but  − ,  = {0} is not
 n n n =1  n n
a neighbourhood of 0.
3. Arbitrary union of neighbourhood of a real number is again a neighbourhood of that real
number.
Example:
(i) The set of real number is neighbour of each of its point.
(ii) The set of natural number, set of integers, set of rational not a neighbourhood of any of
its points.

Deleted Neighbourhood
If we exclude point p from open interval (a,b) then we get deleted neighbourhood of p.

2.9 Interior point

A point p is an interior point of set S if there exists a neighbourhood of p which is contained in
S.
Clearly, is a neighbourhood of p if and only if p is an interior point of S.
Def. Interior of a set : If S is any set then set of all interior points of S is known as interior of
set S and it is denoted by Sint or So
So  S
2.10 Open sets
A set is said to be an open set if each point of the set is an interior point of the set.
i.e. So = S
i.e. for every p  S , there exist  > 0 such that ( p− , p+ )  A

Note:
1. Every open set is union of open intervals
2. Arbitrary union of open sets is open
3. Empty set is open because it is neighbourhood of each of its points.
4. The intersection of finite number of open sets is an open set.
5. The intersection of infinite number of open sets need not be an open set.

 −1 1 
Eg: An = , 
 n n

A n = { 0 } which is non empty finite set.
n =1
It is not an open set.
( It is not a neighbourhood of ‘0’)
6. A set is open iff it can be expressed as the countable union of disjoint open intervals.
7. Every non-empty open set is uncountable.
8. Every neighbourhood of a real number is uncountable.
9. Countable set can never be a neighbourhood of any real number.
10. Let S be a collection of disjoint open sets in , then S is countable.

2.11 Limit Point

A real number is said to be limit point of a set S if every neighbourhood of contains
infinitely many member of set S.
i.e.,   0, ( − , + )  S contains infinitely many terms.
A finite set cannot have any real number as its limit point.

Derived Set
The set of all limit points of set S is known as derived set of S. It is denoted by S’.

2.12 Bolzano Weierstrass theorem for sets

Every infinite bounded set has a limit point.
1 
Eg: S =  :n 
n 
S is infinite and S is bounded (  x  S : x  0 )
So, S has limit point.
0 is a limit point of S.

2.13 Closed Set

A set S is said to be closed set if each limit point of the set belongs to the set.
i.e., S’  S
 Note:
1.  and are the only two sets which are both open and closed.
2. The union of finite number of closed sets is closed.
3. The union of an infinite family of closed sets need not be a closed set
1 
Eg: An =  ,1  n 
n 

1 
 ,1 = (0, 1]
n =1  n
which is not a closed set
4. The intersection of an arbitrary family of closed is closed set.
5. A subset S of is open iff its complement − S is open.
6. If A is closed and B is open then A \ B is closed.
7. If A is open and B is closed then A \ B is open.

2.14 Adherent point of a set

A point p  is called an adherent point of a subset S of if every neighbourhood N of P
contains at least one member of S.
i.e. N S  
The set of all adherent point of set S is called closure of set S and is denoted by S
 S = S  S'
Note :
(i) Limit point is always an adherent point but adherent point may not be a limit point.
(ii) Every point belonging to a set is always its adherent point.
(iii)
2.15 Isolated point of a set
A point a  is said to be an isolated point of set if there exist a neighbourhood of points
which includes no point of the set other than it.
Each adherent point of the set is either an isolated point of the set or limit point of the set.
The general situation for any set A can be understood by the following figure.

2.16 Dense and perfect set

 A subset A  is said to be dense in if each member of either belongs to A or a limit
point of A.
i.e. A  A ' =
Eg: − is dense in .

A subset A of is said to be perfect set if it is closed and dense in itself.

Eg:  and are perfect set because they are closed and their derived set is itself dense in
itself.

3 Sequence
A real sequence is a function whose domain is set of natural number whereas range be a non-
empty subset of real number.

i.e. A function f : → is known as real sequence or simply a sequence.

3.1 Range of a sequence

The set of all distinct terms of a sequence is called its range

The
range of a sequence <xn > is denoted by {xn}.
Note : The number of terms in a sequence is always infinite but range set of a sequence may be a
finite set since it contain only distinct terms of the sequence
Example: <xn >= (– 1)n
{xn} = {– 1, 1, – 1, 1, …}
So, range of sequence xn = {–1, 1}

3.2 Bounded and unbounded sequences

1. Bounded above sequence: A sequence <an> is said to be bounded above sequence if 

a real no. K s.t. a n  K  n  . i.e. the range of the sequence is bounded above.
Here K is called upper bound of the sequence.

2. Bounded below sequence: A sequence <an> is said to be bounded below sequence if 

a real no. k s.t. a n  k  n  . i.e. the range of the sequence is bounded below.
Here k is called the lower bounded of the sequence.

3. Bounded Sequence: A sequence is bounded iff it is bounded above as well as bounded

below.
i.e. a sequence <an> is said to be bounded sequence if  two real no. k, K
s.t. k  a n  K n  N.
i.e. the range of the sequence is bounded.

4. Unbounded above sequence: A sequence an is said to be unbounded above sequence if

 real no. k.  m  s.t. an > k.

5. Unbounded below sequence: A sequence an is said to be unbounded below sequence if

 real no. k  m  s.t. am < k.
 1
Eg: (i) the sequence an defined by an = is bounded.
n
0 < an  1
(ii) the sequence an defined by an = < n > is bounded below
an  1  n 
In this case there is no upper bound.
(iii) the sequence an defined by an = (– 1)n is bounded
−1  a n  1

3.3 Limit point sequence

A real number is said to be a limit point of a sequence {Sn} if every neighbourhood of
contains infinite members of the sequences.

Eg: Limit point of sequence Sn = (– 1)n are {1, 1} only.

 n 
Ques. Sn = sin  
 4 
Find all the limit points of the sequence.

Solution:
The terms are
  3 4 5 6 7
sin ,sin ,sin ,sin ,sin ,sin ,sin ,sin 2
4 2 4 4 4 4 4
2 is period of sine function
 1 
Range of S is 0,  , 1
 2 
 1 
Limit points of Sn are 0,  , 1
 2 

CSIR NET 2011

1 1 
Ques. The set  sin : n   has
n n 
a] one limit point and it is 0
b] one limit point and it is 1
c] one limit point and it is –1
d] three limit point and there are –1, 0, 1.

Solution:
1
sin is bounded.
n
1
And limit point of is 0.
n
1 1
So, limit point of sin is 0.
n n
Option [a] is correct.
 CSIR NET JUNE 2013
Ques. The number of limit point of the set
1 1 
 + : m, n   is/are
m n 
a] 1 b] 2
c] finitely many d] infinitely

Solution:
The terms of the sequence are
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 + , + , + , + ,...
n 2 n 3 n 4 n
1
limit point of 1 + is 1
n
1 1 1
limit point of + is … and so on
2 n 2
1 1  1 
So, limit point of  + ; m, n   is  , m    0
m n  m 
Hence, option [d] is correct.