 Trace-class duality

The dual of the trace-class operators, and also of the normed space of finite-rank operators with the trace norm, is isometrically the space of bounded operators. The pairing is $F_B(T)=\mathrm{Tr}(BT)$. For $R_{x,y}z=⟨z,y⟩x$, one has $\Vert R_{x,y}{\Vert }_1=\Vert x\Vert \Vert y\Vert$ and $F_B(R_{x,y})=⟨Bx,y⟩$, using an inner product linear in its first argument. A bounded functional on these rank-one operators gives a bounded sesquilinear form and hence a unique $B$ by the Riesz representation theorem. The singular value decomposition proves $\Vert F_B\Vert =\Vert B\Vert$ and the triangle inequality for the trace norm.