For bounded positive operators , membership gives . Both terms are nonnegative, so both vanish. The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for a positive operator makes . The reverse inclusion is immediate. Commutativity is not required.
Set . It is a positive semidefinite Hermitian form. Write , and . For every complex ,
If , choosing gives . If and , choosing for large positive makes the expression negative, a contradiction. Thus in that case. In all cases,
This is the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for a positive operator.
By the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for a positive operator, for every ,
Taking gives , and then gives . Thus
The reverse inclusion is immediate. This is the kernel of a sum of positive operators identity.