Let $G$ be a group acting on a topological space $X$. We say the action of $G$ on $X$ is properly discontinuous (or $G$ acts properly discontinuously on $X$) if one of the following two equivalent conditions is satisfied:
- for every $x \in X$ and every compact subset $K$ of $X$ we have that the set $\{T \in G : T(x) \in K\}$ is finite.
- for every compact subset $K$ of $X$ we have that the set $\{T \in G : T(K) \cap K \neq \phi \}$ is finite.
The question is how to prove the equivalence of these two conditions.