Metric Spaces

Since the last century, the postulational method and an abstract point of view have played a vital role in the development of modern mathematics. The experience gained from the earlier concrete studies of analysis point to the importance of passage to the limit. The basis of this operation is the notion of distance between any two points of the line or the complex plane. The algebraic properties of underlying sets often play no role in the development of analysis; this situation naturally leads to the study of metric spaces. The abstraction not only simplifies and elucidates mathematical ideas that recur in different guises, but also helps eco- mize the intellectual effort involved in learning them. However, such an abstract approach is likely to overlook the special features of particular mathematical developments, especially those not taken into account while forming the larger picture. Hence, the study of particular mathematical developments is hard to overemphasize. The language inwhich a large body of ideas and results of functional analysis are expressed is that of metric spaces. The books on functional analysis seem to go over the preliminaries of this topic far too quickly. The present authors attempt to provide a leisurely approach to the theory of metric spaces. In order to ensure that the ideas take root gradually but firmly, a large number of examples and counterexamples follow each definition. Also included are several worked examples and exercises. Applications of the theory are spread out over the entire book.

This volume provides a complete introduction to metric space theory for undergraduates. It covers the topology of metric spaces, continuity, connectedness, compactness and product spaces, and includes results such as the Tietze-Urysohn extension theorem, Picard's theorem on ordinary differential equations, and the set of discontinuities of the pointwise limit of a sequence of continuous functions. Key features include:

a full chapter on product metric spaces, including a proof of Tychonoff’s Theorem

a wealth of examples and counter-examples from real analysis, sequence spaces and spaces of continuous functions

numerous exercises – with solutions to most of them – to test understanding.

The only prerequisite is a familiarity with the basics of real analysis: the authors take care to ensure that no prior knowledge of measure theory, Banach spaces or Hilbert spaces is assumed. The material is developed at a leisurely pace and applications of the theory are discussed throughout, making this book ideal as a classroom text for third- and fourth-year undergraduates or as a self-study resource for graduate students and researchers.