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.
Apply the direct method in the calculus of variations to . Since , take a minimizing sequence with . Then
Thus the sequence is bounded in the bounded-variation space. The bounded-variation compactness gives a subsequence converging in the strong convergence sense in to . Boundedness of the linear operator gives strongly in , so the residual norm converges. The variation term is sequentially lower semicontinuous, hence
Therefore attains the infimum. The useful inverse hypothesis is the lower bound ; a bounded inverse on the range already suffices for this proof. No uniqueness follows from the nonsquared fidelity.