 Smooth convergence on a compact interval

Smooth convergence on a compact interval requires uniform convergence of the functions and of their derivatives of every order separately, as measured by the derivative seminorms. The need for several scales is visible inFor $n\ge 2$, $p_0(f_n)=1/n$ because $t=\pi /(2n)$ lies in $[0,1]$. The derivative has supremum norm one for every $n$, already at $t=0$. Thus $f_n$ converges uniformly to zero, but fails the test for smooth convergence to zero. Andreas Buttenschoen, Applied Functional Analysis, spaces of continuous and differentiable functions discusses this example and the family of smoothness measurements.

More generally, for any fixed $K\ge 0$, $h_n(t)=\sin (nt)/n^{K+1}$ has $p_K(h_n)\le 1/n$ but $p_{K+1}(h_n)=1$ for $n\ge 2$. If a norm $N$ induced the smooth topology, its continuity would give $N(f)\le C{p}_K(f)$ for some finite $K$, while continuity of $p_{K+1}$ for $N$ would give $p_{K+1}(f)\le C^{\prime }N(f)$. Substituting $h_n$ contradicts these two bounds. Smooth convergence therefore cannot be reduced to one norm. Its beauty is that every finite order can be controlled without fixing a final order in advance.