Let X,Y be arbitrary topological spaces with X satisfying the Bolzano-Weierstrass property (i.e. every infinite subset has some accumulation point) and let f:X→Y be a continuous function, does f(X) satisfy the B-W property?
I tried to prove it does by contradiction as follows:
Let's assume f(X) doesn't have the BWP, so there must be some infinite subset A wich has not any accumulation point, hence it's is closed. Because f is continuous, f−1(A) is also closed and infinite and because X has the BWP there is some accumulation point of f−1(A) which is contained in it, let's call x0 one of such points. Now, f(x0) is an isolated point of A, so {f(x0)} is an open neighborhood of f(x0) (with the relative topology of f(X) as a subspace of Y).
This means that f−1(f(x0)) is an open neighborhood of x0 which contains other points different than x0. But this doesn't lead me to a contradiction since in principle f could be locally constant at x0. Is there some reason why this cannot happen? Or maybe continuous function doesn't actually preserve BWP, if that's the case could someone provide a counterexample? Constant functions doesn't seem to work because they have finite image, so I thought maybe a locally constant function with infinite image, but I couldn't build up an explicit example.
EDIT to avoid future missunderstandings: What I called 'accumulation point' above is what usually is refered in english as 'limit point'. Explicitly a is an accumulation (limit) point of a set A of a topological space X if every open set containing a intersected with A contains some point different than a
Answer
This is actually false if "accumulation point" = "limit point" where x is a limit point of A iff every neighbourhood of x intersects A∖{x}.
Your B-W property is then called "limit point compact"
A counterexample: Let Y=N as a discrete space and let X=Y×{0,1} where {0,1} has the indiscrete (trivial) topology with no non-trivial open sets. Let f=πY be the projection onto Y, which is continuous.
X is limit point compact: if A⊆X, and (x,i)∈A, then (x,i′) is a limit point of A, where i′∈{0,1}∖{i}, because any product open set that contains (x,i) also contains (x,i′) and vice versa. But Y is infinite discrete so not limit point compact.
If X is T1 then (here our example is not even T0) limit point compact is equivalent to "strong limit point compact": every infinite set A has an (ω-)accumulation point, i.e. an x∈X such that every neighbourhood of x contains infinitely many points from A. This property is preserved by continuous functions:
Suppose X is strong limit point compact, and f:X→Y is continuous.
Let A⊆f[X] be infinite and let {yn:n∈ω} be an enumeration (yn≠ym for n≠m) of a countably infinite subset of A which means that we have for all n we have xn∈X such that f(xn)=yn. Then clearly, n≠m implies xn≠xm as well, so {xn:n∈ω} is an infinite subset of X. So this has a strong limit point x. Now let y=f(x)∈f[X].
If O is any open set containing y then f−1[O] is open by continuity and contains x, so there are infinitely many n with xn∈f−1[O]. All those n also obey yn=f(xn)∈O. So y is a strong limit point of A, and f[X] is strong limit point compact.
So your original statement is true for T1 spaces X. We then get even a (slightly) stronger property than B-W in Y (without assuming anything extra on Y), namely strong limit compact.
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