Paracompact space
In mathematics, a paracompact space is a topological space in which every open cover has an open refinement that is locally finite. These spaces were introduced by. Every compact space is paracompact. Every paracompact Hausdorff space is normal, and a Hausdorff space is paracompact if and only if it admits partitions of unity subordinate to any open cover. Sometimes paracompact spaces are defined so as to always be Hausdorff.
Every closed subspace of a paracompact space is paracompact. While compact subsets of Hausdorff spaces are always closed, this is not true for paracompact subsets. A space such that every subspace of it is a paracompact space is called hereditarily paracompact. This is equivalent to requiring that every open subspace be paracompact.
Tychonoff's theorem does not generalize to paracompact spaces in that the product of paracompact spaces need not be paracompact. However, the product of a paracompact space and a compact space is always paracompact.
Every metric space is paracompact. A topological space is metrizable if and only if it is a paracompact and locally metrizable Hausdorff space.
Definition
A cover of a set is a collection of subsets of whose union contains. In symbols, if is an indexed family of subsets of, then is a cover of ifA cover of a topological space is open if all its members are open sets. A refinement of a cover of a space is a new cover of the same space such that every set in the new cover is a subset of some set in the old cover. In symbols, the cover is a refinement of the cover if and only if, for any in, there exists some in such that.
An open cover of a space is locally finite if every point of the space has a neighborhood that intersects only finitely many sets in the cover. In symbols, is locally finite if and only if, for any in, there exists some neighbourhood of such that the set
is finite. A topological space is now said to be paracompact if every open cover has a locally finite open refinement.
Examples
- Every compact space is paracompact.
- Every regular Lindelöf space is paracompact. In particular, every locally compact Hausdorff second-countable space is paracompact.
- The Sorgenfrey line is paracompact, even though it is neither compact, locally compact, second countable, nor metrizable.
- Every CW complex is paracompact
- Every metric space is paracompact. Early proofs were somewhat involved, but an elementary one was found by M. E. Rudin. Existing proofs of this require the axiom of choice for the non-separable case. It has been shown that ZF theory is not sufficient to prove it, even after the weaker axiom of dependent choice is added.
- The most famous counterexample is the long line, which is a nonparacompact topological manifold.
- Another counterexample is a product of uncountably many copies of an infinite discrete space. Any infinite set carrying the particular point topology is not paracompact; in fact it is not even metacompact.
- The Prüfer manifold is a non-paracompact surface.
- The bagpipe theorem shows that there are 2ℵ1 isomorphism classes of non-paracompact surfaces.
- The Sorgenfrey plane is not paracompact despite being a product of two paracompact spaces.
Properties
- A regular space is paracompact if every open cover admits a locally finite refinement. In particular, every regular Lindelöf space is paracompact.
- A topological space is metrizable if and only if it is paracompact, Hausdorff, and locally metrizable.
- Michael selection theorem states that lower semicontinuous multifunctions from X into nonempty closed convex subsets of Banach spaces admit continuous selection iff X is paracompact.
- The product of a paracompact space and a compact space is paracompact.
- The product of a metacompact space and a compact space is metacompact.
Paracompact Hausdorff spaces
Paracompact spaces are sometimes required to also be Hausdorff to extend their properties.- Every paracompact Hausdorff space is normal.
- Every paracompact Hausdorff space is a shrinking space, that is, every open cover of a paracompact Hausdorff space has a shrinking: another open cover indexed by the same set such that the closure of every set in the new cover lies inside the corresponding set in the old cover.
- On paracompact Hausdorff spaces, sheaf cohomology and Čech cohomology are equal.
Partitions of unity
- for every function f: X → R from the collection, there is an open set U from the cover such that the support of f is contained in U;
- for every point x in X, there is a neighborhood V of x such that all but finitely many of the functions in the collection are identically 0 in V and the sum of the nonzero functions is identically 1 in V.
Partitions of unity are useful because they often allow one to extend local constructions to the whole space. For instance, the integral of differential forms on paracompact manifolds is first defined locally, and this definition is then extended to the whole space via a partition of unity.
Proof that paracompact Hausdorff spaces admit partitions of unity
A Hausdorff space is paracompact if and only if it every open cover admits a subordinate partition of unity. The if direction is straightforward. Now for the only if direction, we do this in a few stages.Relationship with compactness
There is a similarity between the definitions of compactness and paracompactness:For paracompactness, "subcover" is replaced by "open refinement" and "finite" by is replaced by "locally finite". Both of these changes are significant: if we take the definition of paracompact and change "open refinement" back to "subcover", or "locally finite" back to "finite", we end up with the compact spaces in both cases.
Paracompactness has little to do with the notion of compactness, but rather more to do with breaking up topological space entities into manageable pieces.
Comparison of properties with compactness
Paracompactness is similar to compactness in the following respects:- Every closed subset of a paracompact space is paracompact.
- Every paracompact Hausdorff space is normal.
- A paracompact subset of a Hausdorff space need not be closed. In fact, for metric spaces, all subsets are paracompact.
- A product of paracompact spaces need not be paracompact. The square of the real line R in the lower limit topology is a classical example for this.
Variations
A topological space is:
- metacompact if every open cover has an open pointwise finite refinement.
- orthocompact if every open cover has an open refinement such that the intersection of all the open sets about any point in this refinement is open.
- fully normal if every open cover has an open star refinement, and fully T4 if it is fully normal and T1.
Every paracompact space is metacompact, and every metacompact space is orthocompact.
Definition of relevant terms for the variations
- Given a cover and a point, the star of the point in the cover is the union of all the sets in the cover that contain the point. In symbols, the star of x in U = is
- A star refinement of a cover of a space X is a new cover of the same space such that, given any point in the space, the star of the point in the new cover is a subset of some set in the old cover. In symbols, V is a star refinement of U = if and only if, for any x in X, there exists a Uα in U, such that V* is contained in Uα.
- A cover of a space X is pointwise finite if every point of the space belongs to only finitely many sets in the cover. In symbols, U is pointwise finite if and only if, for any x in X, the set is finite.
Without the Hausdorff property, paracompact spaces are not necessarily fully normal. Any compact space that is not regular provides an example.
As an historical note: fully normal spaces were defined before paracompact spaces.
The proof that all metrizable spaces are fully normal is easy. When it was proved by A.H. Stone that for Hausdorff spaces fully normal and paracompact are equivalent, he implicitly proved that all metrizable spaces are paracompact. Later M.E. Rudin gave a direct proof of the latter fact.