Intersection of finite number of compact sets is compact?

Question

Is the the intersection of a finite number of compact sets is compact? If not please give a counter example to demonstrate this is not true.

I said that this is true because the intersection of finite number of compact sets are closed. Which therefore means that it will be bounded because the intersection is contained by every set. I am not sure if this is correct.

Thank you for the help

Answer 1

For Hausdorff spaces your statement is true, since compact sets in a Hausdorff space must be closed and a closed subset of a compact set is compact. In fact, in this case, the intersection of any family of compact sets is compact (by the same argument). However, in general it is false.

Take $\mathbb{N}$ with the discrete topology and add in two more points $x_1$ and $x_2$. Declare that the only open sets containing $x_i$ to be $\{x_i\}\cup \mathbb{N}$ and $\{x_1 , x_2\}\cup \mathbb{N}$. (If you can't see it immediately, check this gives a topology on $\{x_1 , x_2\}\cup \mathbb{N}$).

Now $\{x_i\}\cup \mathbb{N}$ is compact for $i=1,2$, since any open cover must contain $\{x_i\}\cup \mathbb{N}$ (it is the only open set containing $x_i$). However, their intersection, $\mathbb{N}$, is infinite and discrete, so definitely not compact.

Answer 2

The intersection of two compact subsets is not, in general compact. A possible example is $\mathbb R$ with the lower semicontinuity topology, i.e. the topology generated by sets of the form $(a, +\infty)$.

A subset $A\subseteq\mathbb R$ is compact in this topology if it has a minimum. Now, consider $A=[0, 1)\cup(3, +\infty)$ and $B=[2, +\infty)$. Both $A$ and $B$ are compact, but their intersection $A\cap B=(3, +\infty)$ is not.

Notice that the lower semicontinuity topology on $\mathbb R$ is not Hausdorff. As others have pointed out, the intersection of two compact subspaces of a Hausdorff topological space is still compact.