Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-functional-analysis-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/1/b/i/solution

Since is proper, is a nonzero linear functional. Choose with , by rescaling any vector outside its kernel. For every ,
If , applying gives . Consequently this is a direct sum, and the quotient vector space has dimension one. This computes the codimension of a vector subspace:
To prove boundedness without assuming completeness, use the linear functional with closed kernel criterion directly. Since is a closed set and , the distance
is positive. If , then , so
For the resulting estimate is immediate. Therefore
Here denotes the continuous dual space.

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