NonlinearBook10pt November 20, 2007
DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS AND DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS 23
closure of S is the set
S
△
= {x ∈ R
n
: x is a closure point of S}.
The set S is closed if every closure point of S is an element of S, that is,
S = S. Finally, the boundary of S is the set ∂S
△
= S\
◦
S
= S ∩ (R
n
\ S).
A closure point is sometimes referred to as an adherent point or contact
point in the literature. Note that
◦
S
⊆ S ⊆ S. A closure point should be
carefully distinguished from an accumulation point.
Definition 2.12. Let S ⊆ R
n
. A vector x ∈ R
n
is an accumulation
point of S if, for every ε > 0, the set S ∩(B
ε
(x) \{x}) is not empty. The s et
of all accumulation points of S is called a derived set and is denoted by S
′
.
Note that if S ⊂ R
n
, then the vector x ∈ R
n
is an accumulation point
of S if and only if every open ball centered at x contains a point of S distinct
from x or, equivalently, every open ball centered at x contains an in finite
number of points of S. Note that if x is an accumulation point of S, then x
is a closure point of S. Clearly, for every S ⊂ R
n
, S = S ∪ S
′
, and hence S
is closed if and only if S
′
⊆ S. Thus, a set S ⊆ R
n
is closed if and only if it
contains all of its accumulation points. An accumulation point is sometimes
referred to as a cluster point or limit point in the literature.
Example 2.6. Let S ⊂ R be given by S = (0, 1]. Note that every point
α ∈ [0, 1] is an accumulation point of S since every open ball (open interval
on R in this case) containing α will contain points of (0, 1] distinct from α.
Note that the accumulation point 0 is not an element of S. Since 0 is the
only accumulation point that does not belong to S, the closure of S is given
by S = S ∪ S
′
= (0, 1] ∪ [0, 1] = (0, 1] ∪ {0} = [0, 1]. Finally, note that the
boundary of S is ∂S = S\
◦
S
= S ∩ (R
n
\ S) = [0, 1] ∩ ((−∞, 0] ∪ [1, ∞)) =
{0, 1}. △
Note that for a given set S ⊆ R
n
, closure points can be isolated points
of S, which always belong to S, accumulation points of S belonging to S,
and accumulation points of S which do not belong to S. For example, let
S
△
= {x ∈ R : 0 < x < 1, x = 2}. Clearly, x = 2 is an isolated closure point
of S, x = 0 and x = 1 are accumulation points, and hence, closure points of
S which do not belong to S, and every point x in the set {x ∈ R : 0 < x < 1}
is an accumulation point, and hence, a closure point of S belonging to S.
The next proposition shows that the complement of an open set is
closed and the complement of a closed set is open.
Proposition 2.5. Let S ⊆ R
n
. Then S is closed if and only if R
n
\ S