Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 69 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For positive linear operators on continuous functions, a general Korovkin theorem, in its compact Korovkin test space form, can be stated using a test space , where is a compact Hausdorff space. Assume contains a strictly positive function . Require that, for every , the only positive linear functional on with for all is evaluation at . Then convergence on the test space implies convergence on every continuous function:By the Riesz-Markov-Kakutani representation theorem, the functional condition equivalently says that a positive measure with these test moments must be . This permits arbitrary test families, not just the interval tests .
For completeness, let . Positivity gives , so the operator norms are uniformly bounded. If the conclusion failed for some , choose where its error is bounded away from zero. The evaluation functionals have uniformly bounded norm. Compactness of and the Banach-Alaoglu theorem give a subnet on which and converges in the weak-star topology to a positive . For every , uniform test convergence gives . The hypothesis forces , contradicting the chosen errors. Complex-valued functions follow by applying the real result to their real and imaginary parts.
A useful concrete sufficient condition is that and for each there is with and zero set exactly . Its zero moment forces the representing measure to be supported at , while the constant moment fixes its mass.
For the circle, take . The nonnegative function belongs to and vanishes only at on the circle. Thus the periodic Korovkin test set isUniform convergence on these three functions is sufficient for uniform convergence on .
Periodic Korovkin test set 2026-10-06
For -periodic continuous functions, convergence of positive linear operators on continuous functions to the identity on implies uniform convergence on every function. Indeed is nonnegative and has just one zero on the circle, so the compact Korovkin test space criterion applies.