Thursday, 10 November 2011

gn.general topology - existence of a connected set with given connected projections.

Edit: This answer is wrong. But, since Anton based his answer on this idea, I am leaving it up.



No. Let A, resp. B, be the graph x=f(y), resp. x=g(z), for some continuous functions f and g. Pick numbers 0<d<b<a<c<1, and arrange things so that f(0)=g(0)=0, f(1)=g(1)=1, and f(y) grows from 0 to a, then decreases to b, then finally increases to 1, whereas g(z) grows from 0 to c, decreases to d, and increases to 1. (Here, a, b, c, d are function values, i.e., values of x, not of the arguments y or z.)



Now if C projects to A and B, respectively, it is not hard to see that (0,0,0)inC and (1,1,1)inC. Trying to move (x,y,z) continuously from the former to the latter, a contemplation of how x must grow and shrink in order to maintain x=f(y) and x=g(z) leads to a contradiction. (Hard to put in words, but a pair of graphs reveals it I think.)

No comments:

Post a Comment