McGill University

Math 354: Honors Analysis 3

TAKE HOME MIDTERM 2012 Solutions
Do any 8 of the following 10 problems. Every problem are worth 10 points.
Problem 1.
a) Let X be a metric space with the distance d
1
. Prove that d
2
(x, y) = d
1
(x, y)/(1+d
1
(x, y)) also
denes the distance on X. Prove that open sets and Cauchy sequences for d
1
and d
2
coincide.
b) Prove the same results for d
3
(x, y) = min{d
1
(x, y), 1}.
c) Dene the distance on the set X of all sequences x = (x
1
, x
2
, . . .) of real numbers by the
formula
d(x, y) =

k=1
|x
k
y
k
|
2
k
(1 +|x
k
y
k
|)
.
Prove that d denes a distance on X, and that X is complete with respect to d. Is X separable?
Solution: See solutions to problems in Math 564, Assignment 5, posted on the course page.
Problem 2. Let X =
i
X
i
be a product of metric spaces, with the distance d
i
. Consider the
product topology on X (a basis of open sets is given by
i
U
i
, where U
i
= X
i
except for nitely
many i-s). Let
i
= d
i
/(1 + d
i
); it preserves the topology of X
i
by Problem 1a. Prove that
(x, y) =

j=1

j
(x
j
, y
j
)
2
j
denes a distance on X, and that the topology given by coincides with the product topology. Hint:
Let U be an open set in the basis for the product topology, and let x U. Prove that there exists
r > 0 s.t. B

(x, r) U. Conversely, let y B

(x, r). Prove that there exists a basis set U for the
product topology s.t. y U B

(x, r).
Solution:
The proof that denes the distance is routine. We focus on the second part of the problem,
that the distance induces the product topology on
j
X
j
.
By Problem 1, we know that d
j
and
j
= d
j
/(1 + d
j
) determine the same topology on X
j
. We
know that
j
satises
j
1; the distance on the product is dened by
(x, y) =

j=1

j
(x
j
, y
j
)
2
j
.
Let
U = U
1
U
2
. . . U
m
X
m+1
. . .
be a cylinder in the product topology, and let x = (x
1
, x
2
, . . .) U. Since each U
j
is open, there
exist r
j
, 1 j m such that B(x
j
, r
j
) U
j
, where the ball is taken with respect to the distance

j
. We want to nd r such that
B

(x, r) B

j
(x
j
, r
j
), 1 j m. (1)
It will then follow that B

(x, r) U, proving the rst part of the required statement.

Now, we claim it suces to take
r < min
1jm
r
j
/2
j
.
for (1) to hold. Indeed, if (x, y) < r, then
j
(x
j
, y
j
)/2
j
< r, and it follows that
j
(x
j
, y
j
) < 2
j
r <
r
j
, as required.
In the other direction, let y B

(x, r). Let rho(x, y) = r

1
< r. Let m be such that 2
m
<
(r r
1
)/4. We shall choose a set U = U
1
. . . U
m
, where U
j
= B

j
(y
j
, r
j
). It is clear that one
can choose r
j
-s so that
m

j=1
r
j
2
j
<
r r
1
4
; (2)
indeed, it suces to take r
j
< (r r
1
)/(4m). Assume now that z U
1
. . . U
m
X
m+1
. . .
Then
(y, z) =

j
(x
j
, y
j
)
2
j
<
m

j=1
r
j
2
j
+

j=m+1
1
2
j
<
r r
1
4
+
1
2
m
<
r r
1
2
,
where we have used the inequality (2) and our choice of m. It follows that (z, x) (z, y)+(y, x) <
r
1
+ (r r
1
)/2 < r, and so U B

(x, r) as required, QED.

Problem 3. Let C

[a, b] denote the space of innitely dierentiable functions on [a, b] (all the
derivatives exist and are continuous). Let
d(f, g) =

k=1
max
x[a,b]
|f
(k)
(x) g
(k)
(x)|
2
k
(1 + max
x[a,b]
|f
(k)
(x) g
(k)
(x)|)
.
Prove that d denes the distance on C

[a, b], and that the resulting metric space is complete.

Solution: See solutions to problems in Math 564, Assignment 5, posted on the course page.
Problem 4. Hausdor distance. Let A, B X, where X is a metric space. Let U
r
(Z) := {x
X : d(x, Z) r}. Dene the Hausdor distance
d
H
(A, B) = inf{r > 0 : A U
r
(B), and B U
r
(A)}.
a) Prove that d
H
0, is symmetric and satises the triangle inequality.
b) Prove that d
H
= max(sup
aA
d(a, B), sup
bB
d(b, A)).
c) Prove that d
H
(A, B) r if and only if d(a, B) r, for all a A and d(b, A) r for all b B.
d) d
H
(A, A) = 0, where A is the closure of A.
e) Show that if A, B are closed subsets of X, and d
H
(A, B) = 0, then A = B.
According to e), d
H
denes a distance on the set M(X) of all closed subsets of X.
Solution: See the paper by J. Henrikson on Hausdor distance
http://www-math.mit.edu/phase2/UJM/vol1/HAUSF.PDF
Problem 5. Let A
n
M(X) be a sequence of closed subsets of X, and let d
H
(A
n
, A) 0 as
n , i.e. let A
n
A in the metric space (M(X), d
H
). Prove that
a) A is the set of limits of all converging subsequences {a
n
} in X, s.t. a
n
A
n
for all n.
b) A =

n=1
(closure of

m=n
A
m
).
Next, let X be compact, and {A
i
} be a sequence of its compact subspaces. Prove that
c) If A
i+1
A
i
for all i, then A
k

k=1
A
k
in M(X).
d) If A
i
A
i+1
for all i, then A
i
converges to the closure of

i=1
A
i
.
Solution:
See the paper by J. Henrikson on Hausdor distance
http://www-math.mit.edu/phase2/UJM/vol1/HAUSF.PDF
Problem 6. Consider the orthogonal group O(n) consisting of all n n orthogonal matrices, i.e.
matrices whose columns form an orthonormal basis v
1
, . . . , v
n
of R
n
. We introduce the topology on
O(n) by considering it as a subspace of R
n
2
(consider the matrix entries as coordinates). Show that
a) O(n) is a closed subset of Mat
n
(R) R
n
2
, by considering the dot products (v
i
, v
j
) of the
columns of matrices in O(n) as functions from Mat
n
(R) into R.
b) Show that O(n) is compact.
c) Prove that O(n) is a group, i.e. if A, B O(n), then AB O(n), and A
1
O(n).
Solution, sketch: The mapping
ij
: M (v
i
, v
j
) is a continuous function for all (i, j), so
O(n) =

i=j

1
ij
({0})

1
ii
({1})

is an intersection of closed sets and hence is closed. Is is also clearly bounded, hence compact by a
characterization of compact subsets of R
n
2
.
Problem 7. Let X = C
m
[0, 1] denote the space of m times continuously dierentiable functions on
[0, 1]. Dene the norm on X by
||f|| =
m

k=0
max
x[0,1]
|f
(k)
(x)|.
Prove that (X, || ||) is a complete metric space. Is it separable?
Solution: See solutions to problems in Math 564, Assignment 5, posted on the course page.
Problem 8.
a) Compute the area A(r) of the ball of radius r in R
2
, S
2
, and H
2
. Hint: the volume element in
polar coordinates (r, ) is given by rdrd in R
2
; sinrdrd on S
2
; and sinhrdrd in H
2
. Where
does the volume grow faster? Compute the rst 3 terms in the Taylor series expansion of the
volume as r 0; what do you get?
b) Next, compute he length L(r) of the circle of radius r in R
2
, S
2
, and H
2
. Hint: the length
element in polar coordinates (r, ) is given by dr
2
+ r
2
d
2
in R
2
; dr
2
+ sin
2
rd
2
on S
2
; and
dr
2
+ sinh
2
rd
2
in H
2
.
c) Describe the behavior of the ratio A(r)/L(r) as r 0.
d) Describe the behavior of the ratio L(r)/A(r) as r in R
2
and H
2
; and as r in S
2
.
Solution: Explained in class.
Problem 9.
a) Compute L(r) and A(r) on an innite k-regular tree, k 2. Describe the behavior of the ratio
L(r)/A(r) as r .
b) Do the same for the graph Z
2
.
Solution: Similar to Problem 8, it is a discrete analogue.
Problem 10. Every real number in x [0, 1] can be expanded into a (nite or innite) continued
fraction
x =
1
n
1
+
1
n
2
+
1
n
3
+...
,
sometimes denoted by x = [n
1
, n
2
, n
3
, . . .].
a) Prove that nite continued fractions correspond to rational numbers, while innite fractions
correspond to irrational numbers.
c) Describe all the periodic continued fractions, x = [n
1
, . . . , n
k
, n
1
, . . . , n
k
, . . .].
Solution: Let f denote the map f(x) = {1/x}, where {y} denotes the fractional part of y. If
x =
1
n
1
+
1
n
2
+
1
n
3
+...
, (3)
then the function f can be written as a shift map,
f([n
1
, n
2
, n
3
, . . .]) = [n
2
, n
3
, . . .].
since
1/x = n
1
+
1
n
2
+
1
n
3
+...
.
Clearly, nite continued fractions give rise to rational numbers (clear the denominators). Conversely,
if we apply the map f to a rational number p/q, 0 < p < q, the result {q/p} will have a smaller
denominator p, so after q applications of f we shall get 1 and the continued fraction will terminate.
Every periodic real number x satises the equation
x =
1
n
1
+
1
n
2
+...+
1
n
k
+x
.
Clearing the denominators, it is easy to see by induction that x satises
x =
Ax + B
Cx + D
where A, B, C, D are integers that depend on n
1
, . . . , n
k
; it follows that x satises quadratic equation
with integer coecients, so it is a quadratic irrational. In fact, every quadratic irrational gives rise
to eventually periodic continued fraction, but we wont prove it.