Note that if
is non-singular, it is a proper map and so it extends continuously as a map
of
sending the point at infinity to itself. Conversely, if
fails to be bijective then there is a sequence of
points
such that
but
for every
. Thus if
were to
extend continuously as a map of
we would be forced to map the point at infinity namely the north pole to
(the point of
corresponding to) the origin. On the other hand since
is not the zero map, pick a
vector
such that
and the sequence
converges (as
)
to the point at infinity on
. Thus by continuity we would have
, as
.
Hence,
which is plainly false since
.
More important examples are furnished by regarding
as the one point compactification of the plane
and using the field structure on the plane. The proof of the following is an exercise.
nisha
2012-03-20