Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/iii/paper-339/1/f/solution

The real vector space of symmetric matrices has dimension . By the conic Carathéodory theorem, every member of is a conic combination of at most generators. Absorb each nonnegative coefficient into its vector through .
If converges to , write, padding with zero vectors if necessary,
The matrix trace satisfies
The left side is bounded because converges. Thus the finite tuple is bounded. The Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem gives a subsequence on which every vector converges, say . Continuity of the outer product now gives . Hence
This proves closedness of the completely positive cone. The uniform bound on the number of factors and the matrix trace bound are both essential: an arbitrary conic hull of a closed generating set need not be closed.

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