Is any monomorphism $f:\Bbb R^k\rightarrow\Bbb R^n$ for $k\le n$ a closed map?

122 Views Asked by At

So in the text Functional Analysis by Walter Rudin the proposition 1.21 states

If $n$ is a positive integer and $Y$ is an $n$-dimensional subspace of a complex topological vector space $X$, then every isomorphism of $C^n$ onto $Y$ is a homeomorphism and $Y$ is a closed set

So if $f:\Bbb R^k\rightarrow\Bbb R^n$ for $k\le n$ is a monomorphism (i.e. a linear injective map) then $f\big[\Bbb R^k\big]$ is a $k$-linear subspace of $\Bbb R^n$ and in particular the above theorem implies that $f$ is a homemorphism between $\Bbb R^k$ and $f\big[\Bbb R^k\big]$ because any monomorphism is an isomorphism onto its image: so finally we conclude that $f$ is a closed map because $f\big[\Bbb R^k\big]$ is closed in $\Bbb R^n$ and so any closed set in $f\big[\Bbb R^k\big]$ is even a closed set in $\Bbb R^n$. Obviously the theorem is enunciated for complex topological vector spaces but when I studied it sometimes ago it seemed to me that it was even valid for real topological vector spaces but I can not be sure now about. So are my argumentations correct? Otherwise is $f$ a closed map? So could someone help me, please?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

6
On BEST ANSWER

The result Rudin states for complex vector spaces also holds for real ones (IIRC, the local compactness of the field is the important thing, not the fact that $\Bbb C$ is algebraically closed or something along those lines, see Bourbaki's text I think).

So indeed if $f: \Bbb R^k \to \Bbb R^n$ is a linear monomorphism, it is a closed map and $f[\Bbb R^k]$ is some $k$-dimensional linear subspace of $\Bbb R^n$ (which are always closed anyway, we don't need heavy theorems for that, as it's the intersection of zero-sets of a functional (which are all continuous on $\Bbb R^n$)).