Nice proof of the Jordan curve theorem?

There's a short proof (less than three pages) that uses Brouwer's fixed point theorem, available here:

The Jordan Curve Theorem via the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem

The goal of the proof is to take Moise's "intuitive" proof and make it simpler/shorter. Not sure whether you'd consider it "nice," though.


It depends on what you mean by "simple". If you know homology, the proof is not very hard (less than 1 page), see for example, section 2.B ("Classical Applications") of Hatcher's book "Algebraic Topology".


There is a proof of the Jordan Curve Theorem in my book Topology and Groupoids which also derives results on the Phragmen-Brouwer Property. Also published as

`Groupoids, the Phragmen-Brouwer property and the Jordan curve theorem', J. Homotopy and Related Structures 1 (2006) 175-183.

The van Kampen Theorem for the fundamental groupoid on a set of base points is used to prove that if $X$ is pathconnected and the union of open path connected sets $U,V$ whose intersection has $n$ path components, then the fundamental group of $X$ contains the free group on $n-1$ generators as a retract.

May 30: The question asks why there is not a simple proof. Perhaps the following Figure 9.10 from the above book will explain why a proof is not expected to be so so easy; how do you decide whether a point in the middle is inside or outside?

Fig9.10

Feb 9, 2016: A small correction is needed, and this is given in this paper jointly with Omar Antolin-Camarena.

October 26, 2016 Related issues on many base points are discussed in this paper.