The Choquet game is a
topological game
In mathematics, a topological game is an infinite game of perfect information played between two players on a topological space. Players choose objects with topological properties such as points, open sets, closed sets and open coverings. Time is ...
named after
Gustave Choquet
Gustave Choquet (; 1 March 1915 – 14 November 2006) was a French mathematician.
Choquet was born in Solesmes, Nord. His contributions include work in functional analysis, potential theory, topology and measure theory. He is known for creat ...
, who was in 1969 the first to investigate such games. A closely related game is known as the strong Choquet game.
Let
be a non-empty
topological space
In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a geometrical space in which closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric distance. More specifically, a topological space is a set whose elements are called po ...
. The Choquet game of
,
, is defined as follows: Player I chooses
, a non-empty
open subset
In mathematics, open sets are a generalization of open intervals in the real line.
In a metric space (a set along with a distance defined between any two points), open sets are the sets that, with every point , contain all points that are s ...
of
, then Player II chooses
, a non-empty open subset of
, then Player I chooses
, a non-empty open subset of
, etc. The players continue this process, constructing a sequence
If
then Player I wins, otherwise Player II wins.
It was proved by
John C. Oxtoby
John C. Oxtoby (1910–1991) was an American mathematician. In 1936, he graduated with a Master of Science in Mathematics from Harvard University. He was professor of mathematics at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsy ...
that a non-empty topological space
is a
Baire space
In mathematics, a topological space X is said to be a Baire space if countable unions of closed sets with empty interior also have empty interior.
According to the Baire category theorem, compact Hausdorff spaces and complete metric spaces are ...
if and only if Player I has no winning strategy. A nonempty topological space
in which Player II has a winning strategy is called a Choquet space. (Note that it is possible that neither player has a winning strategy.) Thus every Choquet space is Baire. On the other hand, there are Baire spaces (even
separable metrizable
In topology and related areas of mathematics, a metrizable space is a topological space that is homeomorphic to a metric space. That is, a topological space (X, \mathcal) is said to be metrizable if there is a metric d : X \times X \to , \inf ...
ones) which are not Choquet spaces, so the converse fails.
The strong Choquet game of
,
, is defined similarly, except that Player I chooses
, then Player II chooses
, then Player I chooses
, etc, such that
for all
. A topological space
in which Player II has a winning strategy for
is called a strong Choquet space. Every strong Choquet space is a Choquet space, although the converse does not hold.
All nonempty
complete metric space
In mathematical analysis, a metric space is called complete (or a Cauchy space) if every Cauchy sequence of points in has a limit that is also in .
Intuitively, a space is complete if there are no "points missing" from it (inside or at the bo ...
s and
compact
Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to:
* Interstate compact
* Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines
* Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in British ...
T2 spaces are strong Choquet. (In the first case, Player II, given
, chooses
such that
and
. Then the sequence
for all
.) Any subset of a strong Choquet space which is a
set is strong Choquet. Metrizable spaces are
completely metrizable In mathematics, a completely metrizable space (metrically topologically complete space) is a topological space (''X'', ''T'') for which there exists at least one metric ''d'' on ''X'' such that (''X'', ''d'') is a complete metric space and ''d'' i ...
if and only if they are strong Choquet.
[{{cite book, last1=Kechris, first1=Alexander, title=Classical Descriptive Set Theory, date=2012, publisher=Springer Science & Business Media, isbn=9781461241904, pages=43-45, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WR3SBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA43, language=en]
References
Descriptive set theory
Topological games