Ivan Shishkin, Rye (1878)

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Convex sets are simply connected

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Solution

Solution by Ancient Tree · EN

Let CC be a convex set. First, note that CC is path-connected, since any two points are connected by the segment between them.
Now, let γ0,γ1\gamma_{0},\gamma_{1} be two loops based at point x0x_{0} of CC.
We can naturally form the following homotopy (by the way, this is always the first homotopy to try!):
H(t,s)=(1t)γ0(s)+tγ1(s)H(t,s)=(1-t)\gamma_{0}(s)+t\gamma_{1}(s)This is indeed well-defined, with values in CC, since CC is convex.
Furthermore, HH is a path homotopy, because it preserves the endpoints:
H(t,0)=H(t,1)=x0.H(t,0)=H(t,1)=x_{0}.

We have just shown that there is only one homotopy class of loops in CC. In other words, the fundamental group of CC contains only one element, so it is the trivial group.

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