Principles of Mathematical Analysis, Rudin, 3th ed, Chapter 4, Problem 15
Problem
Call a mapping of $X$ into $Y$ open if $f(V)$ is an open set in $Y$ whenver $V$ is an open set in $X$.
Prove that every continuous open mapping of $\mathbb{R}^1$ into $\mathbb{R}^1$ is monotonic.
Answer
Suppose $f:\mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is an open mapping but not a monotonic function. Then, without loss of generality, there exists $a,b,c \in \mathbb{R}$ such that $a<b<c$, $f(a) < f(b)$, and $f(c) < f(b)$. Note that the interval $[a,c] \subset \mathbb{R}$ is compact, so there exists $p \in [a,c]$ such that $f(p) = \sup f([a,c])$. $p$ is an interior point of $[a,c]$ since $f$ does not attain a maximum at $a$ or $c$. Choose $\epsilon > 0$ such that $N_\epsilon(p) \subset (a,c)$. Then $f(N_\epsilon(p))$ is open because $f$ is an open mapping. For $f(p) \in f(N_\epsilon(p))$, we can choose $\epsilon_1>0$ such that $N_{\epsilon_1}(f(p)) \subset f(N_\epsilon(p))$. This means $f(q) > f(p)$ for some $q \in N_\epsilon(p) \subset [a,c]$, which is contradiction.
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