Weak-star topology on an entire infinite-dimensional Banach dual is not metrizable

ID: weak-star-topology-on-an-entire-infinite-dimensional-banach-dual-is-not-metrizable

A countable local base at zero would give countably many finite sets of evaluation vectors. Any other evaluation must lie in the span of one of those finite sets: otherwise a bounded functional vanishing on that set but not on the evaluation vector, supplied by Hahn-Banach theorem, contradicts inclusion of neighbourhoods after scalar rescaling. Thus the predual has countable Hamel dimension, impossible for an infinite-dimensional Banach space by the Baire category theorem. This concerns the entire dual, unlike weak-star metrizability of the dual ball.

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