Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2005/iii/paper-6/2/ii/solution

We prove the extension by Zorn's lemma, retaining the full domination condition. Consider all pairs extending , with a subspace and linear, satisfying for every . Order these pairs by extension. A chain has an upper bound: take the union of its subspaces and maps. The union is a subspace, and its map is well defined and linear because any finitely many vectors lie together in one member of the chain. Its domination is inherited there. Thus a maximal extension exists.
Suppose its domain is proper, and choose . A linear extension to has the form . Define the admissible values for a sandwich extension by
with and . Part (i) shows every quantity in the supremum is at most every quantity in the infimum, hence . Both bounds are real and finite: choosing zero vectors provides and , and the pairwise comparison then bounds them from the other sides. Choose .
For , positive homogeneity and the upper bound on , used with , give
For , the lower bound on applied to gives
which rearranges to . For this is the existing domination. Thus is a legitimate larger extension, contradicting maximality. The maximal domain is therefore all of ; call its map .
Setting the first vector in the domination to zero yields . Setting it to and the domain vector to yields . Consequently
The one-dimensional extension has checked both signs of its coefficient; positive homogeneity alone does not permit treating negative coefficients as positive ones.

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