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I know that this question has been asked to death, and multiple solutions are given, but I still don't understand why the "standard" proof works

Following Show that the closed unit ball $B[0,1]$ in $C[0,1]$ is not compact


Let $C_o([0,1])$ be the space of continuous functions on $[0,1]$. Define $\|f\| = \sup\{|f(x)| x \in [0,1]]\}$

Let $B[0,1] = \{f \in C_o|\|f\|\leq 1\}$, show that this Closed, Unit ball in $C_o$ is not compact.

Proof Sketch:

Let $\{f_n\} \subset C_o, f_n = x^n, x \in [0,1]$, then $f_n \in C_o, \|f_n\| = 1 \thinspace \forall n$, so $f_n \in B([0,1]) \thinspace \forall n$

But $f_n \to f \notin C_o$. So $B([0,1])$ is not compact.

Three questions:

  1. if $f_n \to f \notin C_o$, wouldn't that mean $B([0,1])$ is not closed in the first place (contradicts with assumption)?

  2. How does the above implies that no subsequence converges in $B([0,1])$

  3. Is the proof sketch essentially correct?

Fraïssé
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  • No: points not in $C_0$ are irrelevant to whether a set is closed in $C_0$. \ 2. If a sequence in $C_0$ converges in norm to a point $g$ of $C_0$, then it also converges pointwise to $g$. But every subsequence of $\langle f_n:n\in\Bbb N\rangle$ converges pointwise to $f$ and therefore does not converge pointwise to any $g\in C_0$. Thus, no subsequence can converge in norm to a point of $C_0$. \ 3. Yes.
  • – Brian M. Scott Apr 24 '16 at 21:25
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    $(f_n)_n$ is not a Cauchy sequence in $C[0,1]$ , which has the topology of uniform convergence, but it converges pointwise to a discontinuous real function $f$. Any subsequence of $(f_n)_n$ that converged in $C[0,1]$ would have to converge uniformly to $f$ ,which would make $f$ continuous. So there is no such subsequence. – DanielWainfleet Apr 24 '16 at 21:35
  • @BrianM.Scott So in simple terms, even though ${f_n}$ is in $B([0,1])$, no subsequence of $(f_n)$ is in $B([0,1])$, therefore $B([0,1])$ is not compact. I guess thats what I needed to fill in the part between $But...So...$ – Fraïssé Apr 24 '16 at 21:39
  • @Lookbehindyou: The subsequences themselves are all in $B([0,1])$; it’s just that none of them is a convergent sequence in $C_0$, i.e., none of them has a limit in the metric space $C_0$. – Brian M. Scott Apr 24 '16 at 21:41
  • @Brain M.Scott Yeah sorry I meant to say no subsequence of $(f_n)$ converges in the ball. – Fraïssé Apr 24 '16 at 21:45
  • Instead of getting into subsequence part ,can I used contrapositive of Bolzano-Weirstrass property.Means ${f_n}$ is infinite subset of $B[0,1]$ which does not have limit in $B[0,1]$? – ogirkar Nov 10 '18 at 15:06