Knaster–Kuratowski–Mazurkiewicz lemma

The Knaster–Kuratowski–Mazurkiewicz lemma is a basic result in mathematical fixed-point theory published in 1929 by Knaster, Kuratowski and Mazurkiewicz in:

B. Knaster, C. Kuratowski, and S. Mazurkiewicz, Ein Beweis des Fixpunktsatzes für n-dimensionale Simplexe, Fund. Math. 14 (1929) 132–137.

The KKM lemma can be proved from Sperner's lemma and can be used to prove the Brouwer fixed point theorem.

KKM Lemma. Suppose that a simplex \Delta_m is covered by the closed sets C_i for i \in I=\{1,\dots,m\} and that for all I_k \subset I the face of S that is spanned by e_i for i \in I_k is covered by C_i for i \in I_k then all the C_i have a common intersection point.

The two-dimensional case may serve as an illustration. In this case the simplex \Delta_3 is a triangle, whose vertexes we can label 1, 2 and 3. We are given three closed sets C_1,C_2,C_3 which collectively cover the triangle; also we are told that C_1 covers vertex 1, C_2 covers vertex 2, C_3 covers vertex 3, and that the edge 12 (from vertex 1 to vertex 2) is covered by the sets C_1 and C_2, the edge 23 is covered by the sets C_2 and C_3, the edge 31 is covered by the sets C_3 and C_1. The KKM lemma states that the sets C_1, C_2, C_3 have at least one point in common.

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