Cardinality of a connected compact Hausdorff space?

105 Views Asked by At

Is it known (in ZFC) that every connected compact Hausdorff space has cardinality at least $\mathfrak c=|\mathbb R|$?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

Yes, assuming the space has more than one point. A compact Hausdorff space $X$ is normal, so by Urysohn's lemma given any two distinct points $x,y\in X$ there is a continuous map $f:X\to[0,1]$ such that $f(x)=0$ and $f(y)=1$. If $X$ is connected, then $f$ must be surjective, and so in particular $X$ has cardinality at least $\mathfrak{c}$.