For a bounded linear operator between Hilbert spaces, its range is closed exactly when there is with for all . The restriction to this orthogonal complement is a bounded bijection onto the range, so the bounded inverse theorem proves necessity. Conversely, the bound makes preimages of a Cauchy sequence of image points a Cauchy sequence, proving closedness by completeness.
Isomorphism of Banach spaces Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
An isomorphism of Banach spaces is a bijective bounded linear map whose inverse is bounded. The bounded inverse theorem makes boundedness of the inverse automatic.
Oblique projection Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
If two closed subspaces of a Hilbert space give , the projection onto along fixes and vanishes on . It need not be an orthogonal projection. The bounded inverse theorem applied to the addition map on the complete component spaces proves boundedness of the component maps. With both complementary subspaces nonzero, its operator norm and that of equal , with the directed subspace angle convention. Indeed, for fixed , the smallest possible norm of over is , which proves the formula for . Equality with follows from the block representation on : both squared operator norms are . If a summand is zero, is zero or the identity operator, and one complementary operator norm is zero; those cases must be treated directly.
The Baire category theorem says that a nonempty complete metric space is not a countable union of closed sets with empty interior; equivalently, every countable intersection of open dense sets is dense. To prove the latter, start with any nonempty open set and open dense sets . Choose closed balls of positive radii with
Each choice is possible by density and openness. Their centers form a Cauchy sequence; its limit exists by completeness and belongs to every closed ball, hence to . This proves density and the theorem.
The Uniform boundedness principle says that a pointwise bounded family of bounded linear maps from a Banach space to a normed space has uniformly bounded operator norms. Put . These sets are closed and cover . Baire gives an open ball . For , the triangle inequality applied to gives . Taking for unit proves .
For the particular expansion, uniqueness makes all coefficient maps and partial-sum maps linear. Since , the norms form a bounded sequence with limit . Also, with ,
This proves both preliminary bounds. The supremum therefore defines a finite norm , with .
To prove (i) implies (ii), the identity map from to is a bounded linear bijection. If (i) holds both spaces are Banach, so the bounded inverse theorem makes its inverse bounded: . This is precisely (ii).
Writing for the Banach space of bounded linear operators on , the spectrum is
Here is the identity operator. Since is a Banach space, the bounded inverse theorem makes this equivalent to failure of bijectivity of .
The spectral radius is
For a nonzero complex Banach space, the spectrum of a bounded linear operator is nonempty and compact, so the supremum is a maximum. If the zero space is allowed, its empty spectrum is assigned spectral radius zero.
The open mapping theorem states that a surjective bounded linear operator between Banach spaces is an open map: is an open set in whenever is an open set in . Equivalently, there is such that
where both displayed balls are open. In particular, a bijective bounded linear operator between Banach spaces has a bounded inverse, the bounded inverse theorem.
Again put . Surjectivity gives, by image-kernel orthogonality for an adjoint,
If is real, , so . If is nonreal and , then ; reality of again implies . Thus is injective as well as surjective, without needing to assume separately that is not an eigenvalue.
Since is a bounded linear operator on the Banach space , the bounded inverse theorem makes bounded. Therefore
This is exactly membership in the resolvent set of an operator.
At a current approximation , Taylor's theorem replaces by the affine equation . Solving this equation gives the Newton iteration in a Banach space
The inverse is a bounded linear inverse by the bounded inverse theorem. The displayed operator is defined where the derivative is invertible, in particular on the specified open domain; the hypotheses do not supply a globally defined Newton operator on all of . If with in that domain, then .
For quadratic convergence, choose a sufficiently small neighbourhood of . Continuity of the inverse derivative and of gives constants there such that
Put and . The quadratic Newton error bound in a Banach space follows from the integral remainder:
so
Take a closed radius- ball lying in the neighbourhood with . This inequality maps the ball into itself and makes errors tend to zero. More explicitly, for , induction gives . Hence every sufficiently close initial point converges to at least quadratically; special maps can converge still faster.
For a fixed-point equation, apply the same method to . Wherever is invertible, the exact adapted map is
Every fixed point of is fixed by , and conversely on this domain. This additional invertibility condition is distinct from invertibility of ; for example, is invertible but is not.
For certification, a frozen Newton correction for a fixed-point equation is often more useful. Choose a bounded, injective approximate inverse of and set
Again if and only if . A well-chosen makes the corrected operator contract even if the original operator has an expanding direction. The subsequent contraction mapping argument requires the stated derivative and residual bounds; it does not assume that arbitrary inverse approximations provide them.
First, a maximal left ideal is closed. Its norm closure is again a left ideal, since multiplication is continuous. If that closure were all of , some would satisfy and would be invertible by the Neumann series. But a proper left ideal cannot contain an invertible element: would put in . Maximality therefore forces .
Consequently is a nonzero quotient Banach space. It is a simple module for left multiplication by , because the inverse image of any submodule under is a left ideal containing , and hence is either or . Since , right multiplication defines a well-defined bounded module endomorphism
Indeed, changing by an element of changes by an element of , and taking the infimum over representatives proves the quotient norm bound. Right multiplication commutes with the left action by associativity.
Choose in the nonempty spectrum of an element of in the Banach algebra . Both the kernel and range of are submodules. If this module endomorphism were nonzero, simplicity would force its kernel to be zero and its range to be all of . It would be a bounded bijection of Banach spaces, with bounded inverse by the bounded inverse theorem, contradicting the choice of . Thus . Applying this identity to yields . If also , then ; since , . Therefore
This is the scalar right action on a maximal-left-ideal quotient; it does not assume that is a two-sided ideal or that is an algebra.
Now consider the center of an associative algebra . For each , the map is a continuous linear map, so its kernel is closed. Their intersection is therefore closed. The identity belongs to , as do sums and scalar multiples of its elements. If , then for every ,
Thus . Also , since commutes with every element of , including . Hence the center is a closed commutative unital subalgebra, and is a Banach algebra in the inherited norm.
For every , the inclusion allows the first argument to apply. Let be the unique scalar for which . Equivalently, the induced right multiplication on is . Since
the map is a complex-linear unital character of an algebra. It is surjective because , and its kernel is precisely . Consequently
Indeed any ideal properly containing the kernel would have a nonzero image in the field and thus would be all of . The algebra character is also continuous: , although continuity is not needed for maximality.
The Fredholm index measures the finite-dimensional obstruction to inverting an operator. For a bounded operator between Hilbert spaces, the Fredholm conditions are that its range of a bounded linear operator is closed and its kernel and cokernel are finite-dimensional. The orthogonal complement of the range is , so
An invertible linear map has Fredholm index zero; the converse needs an additional finite-dimensional correction, since an operator can have equally large kernel and cokernel.
First construct an inverse up to finite-rank operators. On , the restriction of is a bounded bijection onto its closed range, with bounded inverse by the bounded inverse theorem. Extend that inverse by zero on , obtaining . Then
Conversely, suppose and are compact operators. On , the first identity expresses the identity as a compact operator, so this kernel is finite-dimensional. If were not bounded below on , there would be unit vectors in that complement with . Write . Compactness of gives a subsequence for which converges, hence converges to a unit vector in with , a contradiction. This lower bound makes the range closed. Applying the analogous argument to , using , proves that its kernel is finite-dimensional. This proves the Atkinson theorem: a bounded operator is Fredholm exactly when it has an inverse modulo compact operators. For operators on one Hilbert space this says that its image in the Calkin algebra is invertible.
The Fredholm index is stable. Decompose the domain as , where , and the target as , where and . A sufficiently small norm perturbation has block matrix
Multiplying by invertible triangular block matrices reduces this matrix to the direct sum of and the Schur complement . The latter's kernel dimension minus cokernel dimension is , whatever its rank. Therefore the Fredholm set is open and the index is locally constant. If is compact, the same parametrix works modulo compact operators for every , . Local constancy along this path gives
For Fredholm operators and , multiplication of parametrices shows that is Fredholm. Its index is additive. Here is a direct proof, rather than an assertion of additivity. There is an exact sequence of finite-dimensional spaces
The map from takes a vector to its class modulo ; the next takes the class of to that of ; the last is the quotient map. For example, a class lies in the kernel of the middle map exactly when for some , so . This verifies the only less immediate exactness assertion; the others follow directly from their definitions. Alternating the dimensions gives
Also , and indices add under direct sums. For with compact, the index is zero, so injectivity is equivalent to surjectivity. More generally is solvable exactly when is orthogonal to : these are the finitely many compatibility conditions in the Fredholm alternative.
Toeplitz operators exhibit how this analytic index detects a topological winding. Let be the Hardy space of the circle, spanned by , and let be its orthogonal projection. For a continuous symbol , define , where is multiplication by . Then . The product defect is
For trigonometric polynomials the crossing of negative and nonnegative Fourier modes has finite rank. Uniform approximation of continuous symbols by trigonometric polynomials, together with the displayed norm estimate, therefore makes this defect a compact operator for all continuous . If is nowhere zero, is continuous and is a two-sided parametrix modulo compact operators. Thus is Fredholm.
The converse is instructive. If at , consider the normalized Hardy kernels
Their norms are one, their individual Fourier coefficients tend to zero as , and hence they converge weakly to zero. Their squared moduli are the Poisson kernel, so continuity of gives
A Fredholm operator is bounded below off its finite-dimensional kernel. The projection of these weakly vanishing vectors onto that kernel tends to zero, contradicting this lower bound. Thus a continuous-symbol Toeplitz operator is Fredholm exactly when its symbol never vanishes. Applying the same argument to gives its essential spectrum as , with essential spectrum defined by failure of the Fredholm property.
For nonvanishing , let . Lifting a continuous argument of on gives an argument change . After division by , its argument has matching endpoints, so there is a continuous function with . The nonvanishing-symbol homotopy reduces the index to that of . For this is the th power of the unilateral shift operator, whose kernel is zero and whose range has codimension . For it is the th power of the adjoint shift, whose kernel has dimension and whose range is all of . Consequently
The minus sign comes from counting missing nonnegative Fourier modes. This is a concrete bridge between the Fredholm index, stability under compact perturbations, and the winding number of a loop.
A bounded operator is a Fredholm operator when its range is closed and both and have finite dimension. Its Fredholm index is
For index zero, choose an isomorphism and extend it by zero on . The restricted map is a bounded isomorphism, by the bounded inverse theorem. The finite-rank operator fills exactly the missing kernel-to-cokernel block. Thus is invertible and is an invertible operator plus a compact operator.
Conversely suppose with invertible and compact. The Atkinson theorem proved in part (b) makes every , , Fredholm: its quotient image is always . The block argument in part (c) proves local constancy of the Fredholm index, so its index is constant along this interval and equals . This invokes the actual parametrix and block proofs below, not an unproved perturbation assertion. The claimed equivalence holds.
For a Fredholm operator , define to invert and to vanish on the range complement. The bounded inverse theorem makes bounded, and
The errors are finite rank, so is invertible in the Calkin algebra.
Conversely suppose and for bounded and compact . On , is the identity. An infinite-dimensional closed kernel would contain an orthonormal sequence, whose images under have no convergent subsequence, contradicting compactness. Thus the kernel is finite-dimensional.
There is a positive lower bound for on . Otherwise choose unit vectors there with . Since , compactness gives a norm-convergent subsequence with unit limit . The limit lies in the kernel complement and has , a contradiction. This lower bound proves closed range: if converges, remove each kernel component; the remaining form a Cauchy sequence and converge to a preimage of the limit.
Finally adjointing gives . The same kernel argument makes finite-dimensional. Therefore is Fredholm. , the Atkinson theorem. The finite-dimensional case also satisfies the parametrix formulation directly, though its quotient algebra is the zero algebra.
For a complex Banach space, the spectrum of a bounded operator and resolvent set are
The bounded inverse theorem says that a bounded bijection between Banach spaces automatically has a bounded inverse, so failure of bijectivity suffices here. The point spectrum is
the set of eigenvalues. For a real Banach space, these definitions use its complexification.
Suppose first that the bounded Fredholm operator has Fredholm index zero. Put and . These finite-dimensional linear subspaces have the same dimension. The restricted map is a bounded bijection, with bounded inverse by the bounded inverse theorem. Choose an isomorphism and extend it by zero on , writing the resulting finite-rank operator as .
Relative to the orthogonal decompositions and , the operator is the direct sum of and the invertible restricted map. Thus is invertible, and is the sum of an invertible operator and a compact operator.
Conversely write with invertible and compact. It suffices to treat with . A compact operator on a Hilbert space admits arbitrary operator norm approximation by finite-rank operators: take a finite epsilon-net of its unit-ball image and project onto the span of the net. Choose of finite rank with , put , and factor
The first factor is invertible by the Neumann series. Set and , a finite-dimensional linear subspace. On , the second factor has block form
Left multiplication by the invertible block matrix reduces it to . Its range is closed, and its kernel and cokernel have equal dimension by finite-dimensional rank-nullity theorem for . Invertible factors preserve all these properties. Hence is a Fredholm operator of Fredholm index zero, proving both directions:
Work over a complex Hilbert space; for a real space one first complexifies to discuss a complex spectrum. A bounded linear operator is self-adjoint when , where the adjoint operator is defined by
Equivalently, for every pair of vectors.
The spectrum of a bounded operator is
Its complement is the resolvent set. On a Banach space, a bounded bijective operator has a bounded inverse by the bounded inverse theorem, so failure of invertibility is equivalent to failure of bijectivity. An eigenvalue is one possible spectral point, but an injective operator that is not onto can also contribute to the spectrum.
We prove compact perturbation invariance of Fredholm operators using a two-sided inverse modulo compact operators. If is Fredholm, decompose
The restriction of from to its closed range is a bounded bijection, so the bounded inverse theorem supplies a bounded inverse there. Extend that inverse by zero on to obtain a bounded operator . If are the orthogonal projections onto and , respectively, then
Both and have finite rank.
Set . Products of a compact operator and a bounded operator are compact: on one side compactness preserves compact images, and on the other the bounded operator maps the unit ball into a bounded ball. Hence
where are compact.
Here is why these identities force to be Fredholm. On , , so part (a) and compactness make finite-dimensional. There is a positive constant with
Otherwise unit vectors could satisfy . From and compactness, a subsequence would converge strongly to a unit vector with , which is impossible. The lower bound proves closed range: for a convergent sequence , first discard the kernel components, then the remaining are Cauchy and their limit maps to the desired range limit.
For finite codimension, take the adjoint operator of , giving . The operator is compact: the finite-rank approximation proved in part (e) gives finite-rank adjoints converging in operator norm to , and norm limits of compact operators are compact. On , , so this kernel is finite-dimensional. Finally,
Because the range is closed, its cokernel is isomorphic to this finite-dimensional orthogonal complement. This verifies all three Fredholm operator conditions for .
For the converse, start with and perturb by the compact operator . Therefore is Fredholm if and only if is Fredholm, with no self-adjointness assumption.
For the subsequent essential spectrum arguments, the discrete-spectrum definition must use closed, rather than the printed unshifted range. With that correction, means exactly that is finite-dimensional and is closed; this includes the case is in the resolvent set.
A closed-range bound on the kernel complement supplies the useful equivalence
For the forward implication, is a bounded bijection between Banach spaces, so the bounded inverse theorem applies. For the reverse implication, any Cauchy sequence of image points has a Cauchy sequence of preimages in , and completeness gives a preimage of its limit.
Now decompose a bounded sequence as with , . If converges, the lower bound makes a Cauchy sequence. The finite-dimensional vector space makes the bounded have a convergent subsequence. Their sum has a norm-convergent subsequence.
Conversely, if every bounded sequence with convergent images has a norm-convergent subsequence, the kernel cannot be infinite-dimensional: an orthonormal sequence in it would have zero images and no convergent subsequence. If the range were not closed, the lower-bound equivalence would provide unit vectors with . Any norm limit would lie in both and , hence be zero, contradicting its unit norm. This proves the required sequential properness for a self-adjoint operator equivalence.
The spectral-shift repair is essential for later parts. On , take . Its range is not closed, but is an isolated eigenvalue with one-dimensional eigenspace and closed shifted range. The printed definition would incorrectly place in the essential spectrum, although no singular Weyl sequence exists there: on the complement of that eigenspace, .
Put for a bounded linear operator between Hilbert spaces. Its restriction is bijective. Define the Moore–Penrose inverse of an operator by
The inverse vanishes on . For each datum in this domain, is the minimum-norm least-squares solution; all least-squares solutions are . On their natural domains,
The equivalent continuity condition is
If the range is closed, the inverse restriction is bounded by the bounded inverse theorem. Conversely, if on its domain and converges, replace by . The inequality makes these preimages a Cauchy sequence, whose limit maps to the limiting datum; the range is therefore closed. Boundedness here uses the data norm, not a graph norm that would conceal instability.
For a bounded linear operator on a complex Hilbert space, the spectrum of a bounded operator consists of for which does not have a bounded everywhere-defined inverse. A bijective bounded operator has a bounded inverse by the bounded inverse theorem. Using the disjoint spectral convention,
These are respectively the point spectrum, continuous spectrum and residual spectrum, and partition the spectrum. Some texts let residual spectrum include noninjective operators with nondense range; the displayed convention excludes overlap with point spectrum.
The Moore–Penrose inverse of an operator is the linear map
that assigns each admissible datum its minimum-norm least-squares solution. If with and , then is the unique satisfying . In particular it vanishes on , and
The continuity criterion, with the inherited data norm on its domain, is
For a closed operator range, the restriction of from to is a bounded bijection between Banach spaces, so its inverse is bounded by the bounded inverse theorem. Conversely, if is bounded and , replace each by . This is a Cauchy sequence, hence converges to , and . Thus every limit of range elements remains in the operator range.