Thread: proving a function is continuous with a given topology

let f: R -> R be injective where R is given by the cofinite topology. Show that f is continuous.

so i know that the cofinite topology consists of sets that are either empty or have finite complements. in the case of R, the open sets in the topology are intervals containing + and - infinite while leaving out finitely many terms. to prove that f is continuous i have to show that given any open set V in the codomain, the preimage f^-1 (V) in the domain is also open. i also know that in order for a set to be open in R, there must exist a ball centered at each point and contained within the set for every point in that set.

i can see intuitively that since f is injective, the cardinality of V is less than or equal that of the preimage of V. and since V is open the preimage of V should be open as well. however that was based on my intuition and probably does not constitute a formal proof. how would you show that the preimage of any V is open?

It's probably best to use the characterization of continuity in terms of closed sets, which are just finite sets in this case, and use the injectivity.

so far i've only learned the characterization of continuity in terms of open sets. is it posible to use that to derive the characterization in terms of closed sets?

Originally Posted by oblixps

so far i've only learned the characterization of continuity in terms of open sets. is it posible to use that to derive the characterization in terms of closed sets?

Yes, it is. Suppose is continuous and let be a closed set of , then is open, and so is open in , therefore is closed.

Conversely, suppose that closed in implies closed in . Consider an open set of , then is closed in and so, is closed in . Therefore is open in i.e. is continuous.


Fernando Revilla

thanks for the proof!

now to prove this i need to show that any preimage of a closed set V in R is closed as well. the closed sets in this case are finite sets and since f is injective, the preimage of f must contain the same number of elements or less than the closed sets in the codomain. so the preimages are finite as well and since a ball around any point in a finite set in R necessarily is not contained in the finite set, the preimages must be closed sets. therefore f is continuous.

would this be the correct reasoning?

Originally Posted by oblixps

thanks for the proof!

now to prove this i need to show that any preimage of a closed set V in R is closed as well. the closed sets in this case are finite sets and since f is injective, the preimage of f must contain the same number of elements or less than the closed sets in the codomain. so the preimages are finite as well and since a ball around any point in a finite set in R necessarily is not contained in the finite set, the preimages must be closed sets. therefore f is continuous.

would this be the correct reasoning?

Correct! Put more concisely since is injective we have that for any closed in we have that and so is closed.