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A Proof of Tychonoff's Theorem

1) The theorem states that if a collection of topological spaces indexed by a set A are each compact, then their product space is also compact. 2) The proof uses two lemmas: one showing any cover of a basic open set has a finite subcover, and Alexander's Subbase Theorem, which relates subbases to compactness. 3) Alexander's theorem is proved by contradiction using Zorn's lemma: assuming no finite subcover leads to a maximal cover with a contradiction.

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Ramya Datta
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681 views2 pages

A Proof of Tychonoff's Theorem

1) The theorem states that if a collection of topological spaces indexed by a set A are each compact, then their product space is also compact. 2) The proof uses two lemmas: one showing any cover of a basic open set has a finite subcover, and Alexander's Subbase Theorem, which relates subbases to compactness. 3) Alexander's theorem is proved by contradiction using Zorn's lemma: assuming no finite subcover leads to a maximal cover with a contradiction.

Uploaded by

Ramya Datta
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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A Proof of Tychonos Theorem

08.11.10
Theorem (Tychono). If (X , ) are compact topological spaces for each A, then so is X = A X (endowed with the product topology). We will prove this theorem using two lemmas, one of which is known as Alexanders Subbase Theorem (the proof of which requires the use of Zorns Lemma). Lemma 1. Assume X and (X , ) are as above. Then any open cover of 1 (O) (O ) contains a nite X consisting solely of elements of the form subcover of X . Proof. Let U be such a cover, and dene
1 U = {O | (O) U }

We claim that there is at least one A such that U covers X : if not, then for each A, there is some x X such that x is not in the union of all the elements in U . Now dene f X via f () = x . Then f would not be contained in any of the members of U , a contradiction since U is a cover of X . So choose such that U is a cover of X . By compactness, there are O1 , . . . , On U such that X n 1 Oj . Then a nite cover of X is given by 1 1 (On )}. (O1 ), . . . , { Now we prove the Alexander Subbase Theorem. Lemma (Alexanders Subbase Theorem). Let (X, ) be a topological space and E be a subbase for . If every collection of sets from E that covers X has a nite subcover, then X is compact. Proof. The proof is by contradiction. Suppose every cover of X by sets in E has a nite subcover and X is not compact. Then the collection F of all open covers of X with no nite subcover is nonempty and partially ordered by set inclusion. With an eye towards Zorns Lemma, take any totally ordered subset {E } in F . Then we claim E = E is an upper bound. To see that E contains no nite subcover, look at any nite subcollection O1 , . . . , On . Then Oj Ej for some j (each j ). Since we have a total ordering, there is some E0 that contains all of the Oj . Thus, this nite subcollection cannot cover X .

Now Zorns Lemma gives us a maximal element M of F . Consider the set S = ME . We claim that S is a cover of X . If not, we can nd some x X that is not in any of the members of S . Since M does cover X , there is some O M with x O. Since E is a subbase, there are V1 , . . . , Vn in E with x n 1 Vj O . None of these Vj are in M because then x would be an element of some member of S . By maximality of M, each M {Vj } must contain a nite subcover of X , say X = Vj Uj , where Uj is a nite union of sets in M. Then O (n Uj ) (n Vj ) (n Uj ) n (Vj Uj ) X This is impossible by construction of M. Then S is a cover of X . Then because S is contained in E , it would thus have a nite subcover by assumption. This is a contradiction however because S is contained in M . Therefore, our original collection F must be empty so that X is compact.

Proof of the Main Theorem. Take as a subbase for the product topology on X the collection
1 { (O) | A, O }

Any subcollection of this set that covers X has a nite subcover by Lemma 1. Thus by Alexanders Subbase Theorem, X is compact.

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