Relations between compactness and connectedness

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Discussion Overview

The discussion explores the relationship between compactness and connectedness in topological spaces, specifically within the context of subdomains of 3D Riemannian manifolds. Participants raise questions regarding the implications of compactness and connectedness, and provide examples to illustrate their points.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Mathematical reasoning

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions whether a compact subdomain D must necessarily be connected, proposing that a union of two disjoint balls in R3 serves as a counterexample.
  • Another participant asserts that a simply-connected space is not necessarily compact, using the real line as an example.
  • There is uncertainty regarding the definition of "multi-connected," with one participant suggesting that it may refer to having multiple components, and providing examples of non-compact sets that are multi-connected.
  • A later reply emphasizes the distinct nature of connectedness, simple connectedness, and compactness, suggesting that these properties do not imply one another.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus, as there are competing views regarding the relationships between compactness and connectedness. Some participants provide counterexamples to challenge the notion that these properties are related.

Contextual Notes

Definitions and interpretations of terms such as "multi-connected" remain unresolved, and the discussion reflects varying understandings of the implications of compactness and connectedness.

soTo
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Hello there,

This might be probably a simple question, but my wondering was:

Is there any relation between the compactness and the connectedness of a topological space?

Let us consider the specific example (of interest for me) of a subdomain D of a 3D Riemannian manifold.

i) If D is compact, can I say that it is necessarily connected?

ii) If D is simply-connected, can I say that it is compact?

iii) If D is multi-connected, can I say that it is compact?

If one or another answer to these questions is negative, can you please provide me with an example?

Regards
 
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soTo said:
Hello there,

This might be probably a simple question, but my wondering was:

Is there any relation between the compactness and the connectedness of a topological space?

Let us consider the specific example (of interest for me) of a subdomain D of a 3D Riemannian manifold.

i) If D is compact, can I say that it is necessarily connected?
Let D be the ball of radius 1 with center at (-1, 0, 0) union the ball with radius 1 and center at (1, 0, 0) in R3. That set is compact but not connected.

ii) If D is simply-connected, can I say that it is compact?
The line, R1 is simply connected but not compact.

iii) If D is multi-connected, can I say that it is compact?
I don't know what you mean by "multi- connected"- has multiple components?
If so, the union of [1, \infty) and (-\infty, -1] has two components but is not compact. The set of all integers, as a subset of the real line, has an infinite number of components but is not compact.

If one or another answer to these questions is negative, can you please provide me with an example?

Regards
The answer to all of those questions is negative. I really have no idea why you would think that "connected" and "compact" are related. They both start with "c" is about as close as you will get!
 
Thanks a lot for your answer and your examples HallsofIvy!
 
i'm going to go out on a limb here and maybe say something false, in an attempt to show that the three concepts are quite different.

1) a manifold M is connected if every continuous map from {0,1}-->M extends to a continuous map [0,1]-->M.

2) a manifold M is simply connected if every continuous map circle-->M

extends to a continuous map disc-->M.

3) a manifold M is compact if there is a surjective continuous map [0,1]-->M.

so you see these three properties are pretty dissimilar.
 

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