Dense set vs no isolating points

  • Context: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter SchroedingersLion
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Points Set
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
3 replies · 2K views
SchroedingersLion
Messages
211
Reaction score
56
TL;DR
Differences between two concepts.
Greetings,

could you commend or correct the following:

A dense subset ##X## of a set ##Y## is a set such that in each environment of ##y\in Y##, there is at least one element ##x\in X##. In other words, the elements of ##Y## can be approximated arbitrarily well by elements in ##X##.

A set with no isolating points is a set such that in each environment of ##a\in A##, there are other elements of A.

Are dense subsets automatically sets with no isolating points?
Simple example, ##\mathbb{Q}## is dense in ##\mathbb{R}##, so in each environment of ##x\in \mathbb{R}## there is at least one element ##\in \mathbb{Q}##. But take an ##x\in \mathbb{Q}##. Are there other rationals in each environment of a rational?SL
 
on Phys.org
Yes there are other rationals in each neighborhood of a rational! Given a rational ##q\in \mathbb{Q}##, simply consider ##q+\frac{1}{n}## where ##n## is a sufficiently large natural number (basically this is rewording that ##q+\frac{1}{n}\to q##).

Your definition of dense set seems ok to me. This is equivalent with saying that the closure of ##X## is ##Y## or that ##X## intersects every open set of ##Y##.

A dense set can evidently have isolated points. Consider the space ##Y = [0,1]\cup \{2\}## (with the subspace topology inherited from the usual topology). Then ##X=Y## is dense in itself (trivially) but ##2## is isolated in ##X## since ##\{2\}## is an open set.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: SchroedingersLion
Thank you Math_QED,

so while ##\mathbb{Q}## is dense in ##\mathbb{R}## and has no isolating points, it is generally not true that dense subsets have no isolating points.
 
SchroedingersLion said:
Thank you Math_QED,

so while ##\mathbb{Q}## is dense in ##\mathbb{R}## and has no isolating points, it is generally not true that dense subsets have no isolating points.

Exactly.