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Jordancurvetheorem
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Intopology,aJordancurveisanonselfintersectingcontinuousloopinthe
plane,andanothernameforaJordancurveisaplanesimpleclosedcurve.[1]
TheJordancurvetheoremassertsthateveryJordancurvedividestheplane
intoan"interior"regionboundedbythecurveandan"exterior"region
containingallofthenearbyandfarawayexteriorpoints,sothatany
continuouspathconnectingapointofoneregiontoapointoftheother
intersectswiththatloopsomewhere.Whilethestatementofthistheorem
seemstobeintuitivelyobvious,ittakesquiteabitofingenuitytoproveitby
elementarymeans.Moretransparentproofsrelyonthemathematical
machineryofalgebraictopology,andtheseleadtogeneralizationstohigher
dimensionalspaces.
IllustrationoftheJordancurve
TheJordancurvetheoremisnamedafterthemathematicianCamilleJordan, theorem.TheJordancurve(drawn
whofounditsfirstproof.Fordecades,mathematiciansgenerallythoughtthat inblack)dividestheplaneintoan
thisproofwasflawedandthatthefirstrigorousproofwascarriedoutby "inside"region(lightblue)andan
OswaldVeblen.However,thisnotionhasbeenchallengedbyThomasC. "outside"region(pink).
Halesandothers.

Contents
1 DefinitionsandthestatementoftheJordantheorem
2 Proofandgeneralizations
3 Historyandfurtherproofs
4 Seealso
5 Notes
6 References
7 Externallinks

DefinitionsandthestatementoftheJordantheorem
AJordancurveorasimpleclosedcurveintheplaneR2istheimageCofaninjectivecontinuousmapofacircle
intotheplane,:S1R2.AJordanarcintheplaneistheimageofaninjectivecontinuousmapofaclosed
intervalintotheplane.

Alternatively,aJordancurveistheimageofacontinuousmap:[0,1]R2suchthat(0)=(1)andthe
restrictionofto[0,1)isinjective.ThefirsttwoconditionssaythatCisacontinuousloop,whereasthelast
conditionstipulatesthatChasnoselfintersectionpoints.

Withthesedefinitions,theJordancurvetheoremcanbestatedasfollows:

LetCbeaJordancurveintheplaneR2.Thenitscomplement,R2\C,consistsofexactlytwo
connectedcomponents.Oneofthesecomponentsisbounded(theinterior)andtheotherisunbounded
(theexterior),andthecurveCistheboundaryofeachcomponent.
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Furthermore,thecomplementofaJordanarcintheplaneisconnected.

Proofandgeneralizations
TheJordancurvetheoremwasindependentlygeneralizedtohigherdimensionsbyH.LebesgueandL.E.J.
Brouwerin1911,resultingintheJordanBrouwerseparationtheorem.

LetXbeatopologicalsphereinthe(n+1)dimensionalEuclideanspaceRn+1(n>0),i.e.theimageof
aninjectivecontinuousmappingofthensphereSnintoRn+1.ThenthecomplementYofXinRn+1
consistsofexactlytwoconnectedcomponents.Oneofthesecomponentsisbounded(theinterior)and
theotherisunbounded(theexterior).ThesetXistheircommonboundary.

Theproofuseshomologytheory.Itisfirstestablishedthat,moregenerally,ifXishomeomorphictotheksphere,
thenthereducedintegralhomologygroupsofY=Rn+1\Xareasfollows:

ThisisprovedbyinductioninkusingtheMayerVietorissequence.Whenn=k,thezerothreducedhomologyof
Yhasrank1,whichmeansthatYhas2connectedcomponents(whichare,moreover,pathconnected),andwitha
bitofextrawork,oneshowsthattheircommonboundaryisX.AfurthergeneralizationwasfoundbyJ.W.
Alexander,whoestablishedtheAlexanderdualitybetweenthereducedhomologyofacompactsubsetXofRn+1
andthereducedcohomologyofitscomplement.IfXisanndimensionalcompactconnectedsubmanifoldofRn+1
(orSn+1)withoutboundary,itscomplementhas2connectedcomponents.

ThereisastrengtheningoftheJordancurvetheorem,calledtheJordanSchnfliestheorem,whichstatesthatthe
interiorandtheexteriorplanarregionsdeterminedbyaJordancurveinR2arehomeomorphictotheinteriorand
exterioroftheunitdisk.Inparticular,foranypointPintheinteriorregionandapointAontheJordancurve,there
existsaJordanarcconnectingPwithAand,withtheexceptionoftheendpointA,completelylyingintheinterior
region.AnalternativeandequivalentformulationoftheJordanSchnfliestheoremassertsthatanyJordancurve
:S1R2,whereS1isviewedastheunitcircleintheplane,canbeextendedtoahomeomorphism:R2R2
oftheplane.UnlikeLebesgues'andBrouwer'sgeneralizationoftheJordancurvetheorem,thisstatementbecomes
falseinhigherdimensions:whiletheexterioroftheunitballinR3issimplyconnected,becauseitretractsontothe
unitsphere,theAlexanderhornedsphereisasubsetofR3homeomorphictoasphere,butsotwistedinspacethat
theunboundedcomponentofitscomplementinR3isnotsimplyconnected,andhencenothomeomorphictothe
exterioroftheunitball.

Historyandfurtherproofs
ThestatementoftheJordancurvetheoremmayseemobviousatfirst,butitisaratherdifficulttheoremtoprove.
BernardBolzanowasthefirsttoformulateapreciseconjecture,observingthatitwasnotaselfevidentstatement,
butthatitrequiredaproof.Itiseasytoestablishthisresultforpolygonallines,buttheproblemcamein
generalizingittoallkindsofbadlybehavedcurves,whichincludenowheredifferentiablecurves,suchastheKoch
snowflakeandotherfractalcurves,orevenaJordancurveofpositiveareaconstructedbyOsgood(1903).

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ThefirstproofofthistheoremwasgivenbyCamilleJordaninhislecturesonrealanalysis,andwaspublishedin
hisbookCoursd'analysedel'colePolytechnique.[2]ThereissomecontroversyaboutwhetherJordan'sproofwas
complete:themajorityofcommentersonithaveclaimedthatthefirstcompleteproofwasgivenlaterbyOswald
Veblen,whosaidthefollowingaboutJordan'sproof:

Hisproof,however,isunsatisfactorytomanymathematicians.Itassumesthetheoremwithoutproofinthe
importantspecialcaseofasimplepolygon,andoftheargumentfromthatpointon,onemustadmitatleast
thatalldetailsarenotgiven.[3]

However,ThomasC.Haleswrote:

NearlyeverymoderncitationthatIhavefoundagreesthatthefirstcorrectproofisduetoVeblen...Inview
oftheheavycriticismofJordansproof,IwassurprisedwhenIsatdowntoreadhisprooftofindnothing
objectionableaboutit.Sincethen,IhavecontactedanumberoftheauthorswhohavecriticizedJordan,and
eachcasetheauthorhasadmittedtohavingnodirectknowledgeofanerrorinJordansproof.[4]

Halesalsopointedoutthatthespecialcaseofsimplepolygonsisnotonlyaneasyexercise,butwasnotreallyused
byJordananyway,andquotedMichaelReekenassaying:

Jordansproofisessentiallycorrect...Jordansproofdoesnotpresentthedetailsinasatisfactoryway.But
theideaisright,andwithsomepolishingtheproofwouldbeimpeccable.[5]

Jordan'sproofandanotherearlyproofbydelaVallePoussinwerelatercriticallyanalyzedandcompletedby
Schoenflies(1924).

DuetotheimportanceoftheJordancurvetheoreminlowdimensionaltopologyandcomplexanalysis,itreceived
muchattentionfromprominentmathematiciansofthefirsthalfofthe20thcentury.Variousproofsofthetheorem
anditsgeneralizationswereconstructedbyJ.W.Alexander,LouisAntoine,Bieberbach,LuitzenBrouwer,
Denjoy,Hartogs,BlaKerkjrt,AlfredPringsheim,andArthurMoritzSchoenflies.

NewelementaryproofsoftheJordancurvetheorem,aswellassimplificationsoftheearlierproofs,continuetobe
carriedout.

AshortelementaryproofoftheJordancurvetheoremwaspresentedbyA.F.Filippovin1950.[6]
AproofusingnonstandardanalysisbyNarens(1971).
AproofusingconstructivemathematicsbyGordonO.Berg,W.Julian,andR.Minesetal.(1975).
AproofusingtheBrouwerfixedpointtheorembyMaehara(1984).
AproofusingnonplanarityofthecompletebipartitegraphK3,3wasgivenbyThomassen(1992).
Asimplificationofthe(?whose)proofbyHelgeTverberg.[7]

ThefirstformalproofoftheJordancurvetheoremwascreatedbyHales(2007a)intheHOLLightsystem,in
January2005,andcontainedabout60,000lines.Anotherrigorous6,500lineformalproofwasproducedin2005
byaninternationalteamofmathematiciansusingtheMizarsystem.BoththeMizarandtheHOLLightproofrely
onlibrariesofpreviouslyprovedtheorems,sothesetwosizesarenotcomparable.NobuyukiSakamotoandKeita
Yokoyama(2007)showedthattheJordancurvetheoremisequivalentinprooftheoreticstrengthtotheweak
Knig'slemma.

Seealso
DenjoyRiesztheorem,adescriptionofcertainsetsofpointsintheplanethatcanbesubsetsofJordan
curves
LakesofWada
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QuasiFuchsiangroup,amathematicalgroupthatpreservesaJordancurve
Complexanalysis

Notes
1.Sulovsk,Marek(2012).Depth,CrossingsandConflictsinDiscreteGeometry.LogosVerlagBerlinGmbH.p.7.
ISBN9783832531195.
2.CamilleJordan(1887)
3.OswaldVeblen(1905)
4.Hales(2007b)
5.Hales(2007b)
6.A.F.Filippov,AnelementaryproofofJordan'stheorem,UspekhiMat.Nauk,5:5(39)(1950),173176(http://www.math
net.ru/php/archive.phtml?wshow=paper&jrnid=rm&paperid=8482&option_lang=eng)(inRussian)
7.CzesKosniowski,AFirstCourseinAlgebraicTopology

References
Berg,GordonO.Julian,W.Mines,R.Richman,Fred(1975),"TheconstructiveJordancurvetheorem",
RockyMountainJournalofMathematics,5(2):225236,doi:10.1216/RMJ197552225,ISSN0035
7596,MR0410701
Hales,ThomasC.(2007a),"TheJordancurvetheorem,formallyandinformally",TheAmerican
MathematicalMonthly,114(10):882894,ISSN00029890,MR2363054
Hales,Thomas(2007b),"Jordan'sproofoftheJordanCurvetheorem"(PDF),StudiesinLogic,Grammar
andRhetoric,10(23)
Jordan,Camille(1887),Coursd'analyse(PDF),pp.587594
Maehara,Ryuji(1984),"TheJordanCurveTheoremViatheBrouwerFixedPointTheorem",TheAmerican
MathematicalMonthly,MathematicalAssociationofAmerica,91(10):641643,doi:10.2307/2323369,
ISSN00029890,JSTOR2323369,MR0769530
Narens,Louis(1971),"AnonstandardproofoftheJordancurvetheorem",PacificJournalofMathematics,
36:219229,doi:10.2140/pjm.1971.36.219,ISSN00308730,MR0276940
Osgood,WilliamF.(1903),"AJordanCurveofPositiveArea",TransactionsoftheAmericanMathematical
Society,Providence,R.I.:AmericanMathematicalSociety,4(1):107112,doi:10.2307/1986455,
ISSN00029947,JFM34.0533.02,JSTOR1986455
Ross,FionaRoss,WilliamT.(2011),"TheJordancurvetheoremisnontrivial",JournalofMathematics
andtheArts,Taylor&Francis,5(4):213219,doi:10.1080/17513472.2011.634320.author'ssite(https://fac
ultystaff.richmond.edu/~wross/PDF/Jordanrevised.pdf)
Sakamoto,NobuyukiYokoyama,Keita(2007),"TheJordancurvetheoremandtheSchnfliestheoremin
weaksecondorderarithmetic",ArchiveforMathematicalLogic,46(5):465480,doi:10.1007/s00153007
00506,ISSN09335846,MR2321588
Thomassen,Carsten(1992),"TheJordanSchnfliestheoremandtheclassificationofsurfaces",American
MathematicalMonthly,99(2):116130,doi:10.2307/2324180,JSTOR2324180
Veblen,Oswald(1905),"TheoryonPlaneCurvesinNonMetricalAnalysisSitus",Transactionsofthe
AmericanMathematicalSociety,6(1):8398,doi:10.2307/1986378,JSTOR1986378,MR1500697

Externallinks
M.I.Voitsekhovskii(2001),"Jordantheorem",inHazewinkel,Michiel,EncyclopediaofMathematics,
Springer,ISBN9781556080104
Thefull6,500lineformalproofofJordan'scurvetheorem(http://mizar.uwb.edu.pl/version/7.11.07_4.156.11
12/html/jordan.html)inMizar.
CollectionofproofsoftheJordancurvetheorem(http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/jordan)atAndrew
Ranicki'shomepage

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AsimpleproofofJordancurvetheorem(http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/class750/section5.pdf)(PDF)by
DavidB.Gauld
Brown,R.andAntolinoCamarena,O."Corrigendumto"Groupoids,thePhragmenBrouwerProperty,and
theJordanCurveTheorem",J.HomotopyandRelatedStructures1(2006)175183."J.Homotopyand
RelatedStructures,(2015)10:669672,DOI:10.100715.4006201400890(http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.0556ar
Xiv:1404.0556)

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