Scribd
Upload
121 views4 pages

9 2 Pointwise Convergence

Pointwise convergence means convergence when evaluated at each point. Specifically, a sequence of maps xn converges pointwise to a map x if xn(t) converges to x(t) for each t in the domain. Uniform convergence requires choosing N independently of t, while for pointwise convergence N can depend on both t and ε. An example showed pointwise but not uniform convergence of tn to 0 on [0,1). Uniform convergence implies pointwise convergence. However, the pointwise limit of continuous maps may be discontinuous, unlike the uniform limit.

Uploaded by

Dmitri Zaitsev
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
121 views4 pages

9 2 Pointwise Convergence

Pointwise convergence means convergence when evaluated at each point. Specifically, a sequence of maps xn converges pointwise to a map x if xn(t) converges to x(t) for each t in the domain. Uniform convergence requires choosing N independently of t, while for pointwise convergence N can depend on both t and ε. An example showed pointwise but not uniform convergence of tn to 0 on [0,1). Uniform convergence implies pointwise convergence. However, the pointwise limit of continuous maps may be discontinuous, unlike the uniform limit.

Uploaded by

Dmitri Zaitsev
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

9-2.

Pointwise convergence
MAU22200 - Advanced Analysis

https://www.maths.tcd.ie/∼zaitsev/Adv-2020
Dmitri Zaitsev [email protected]

Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 9-2. Pointwise convergence 1/1


Pointwise convergence
Pointwise convergence is perhaps more intuitive than uniform convergence
and simply means - convergence when evaluated at each point:
Definition (pointwise covergence)
Let T be a set and (Y , d) a metric space. A sequence of maps
xn : T → Y is converging pointwise to x : T → Y if xn (t) → x(t) in Y as
n → ∞ for each t ∈ T .
From the definition of convergence: xn → x as n → ∞ pointwise ⇐⇒
∀t ∈ T , ε > 0 ∃N ∀n ≥ N d(xn (t), x(t)) < ε.
For the pointwise convergence, it suffices to choose N depending on both
t and ε. For uniform convergence, N must be chosen independently of t.
Example (pointwise but not uniform convergence)
The sequence of powers xn (t) = t n converges to 0 pointwise on T = [0, 1)
but not uniformly since supt∈T |t n − 0| = 1 6→ 0 as n → ∞.
Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 9-2. Pointwise convergence 2/1
Uniform convergence implies pointwise convergence
Theorem
Let T be a set, (Y , d) a metric space, and xn : T → Y a sequence of
maps. If xn converges uniformly to a map x : T → Y , then xn also
converges pointwise to x.

Proof.
We use the characterizations

xn → x uniformly ⇐⇒ supt∈T d(xn (t), x(t)) → 0, n → ∞,


xn → x pointwise ⇐⇒ ∀t ∈ T d(xn (t), x(t)) → 0, n → ∞.

Since for every fixed s ∈ T ,

0 ≤ d(xn (s), x(s)) ≤ supt∈T d(xn (t), x(t)),

convergence of the supremum =⇒ convergence of each distance.


Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 9-2. Pointwise convergence 3/1
Pointwise limit of continuous maps may not be continuous

We have seen that uniform limits of continuous maps are always


continuous. However, the same property does not hold for the pointwise
limits as the following example illustrates.

Example (sequence of continuous functions with discontinuous limit)


The sequence of powers fn (t) = t n for t ∈ [0, 1] converges pointwise to the
discontinuous function
(
0 t<1
f (t) = 6∈ C [0, 1],
1 t=1

even though each fn ∈ C [0, 1] for all n.


Hence a pointwise limit of a sequence of continuous functions may not be
continuous, and thus we cannot replace the uniform with the pointwise
convergence in the mentioned theorem from the lecture 9-1.

Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 9-2. Pointwise convergence 4/1

You might also like