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ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/iii/paper-5/2/1/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 5 2 1 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Throughout this question the Banach spaces and Hilbert spaces are complex. Separability is an additional standing hypothesis, not part of the general definition of a Hilbert space. Here and below unit ball means the closed unit ball. An open unit ball in positive finite dimension is not compact. In finite dimension, equivalence of norms identifies the closed unit ball with a closed bounded subset of Euclidean space, so the Heine-Borel theorem gives compactness in the norm topology.
In an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, the Gram-Schmidt process constructs an infinite orthonormal sequence . Put . Then and, for , . No subsequence is a Cauchy sequence, contradicting sequential compactness. Thus the closed unit ball is norm compact exactly in finite dimension.
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