Suppose the compact operator acts on , and . The Uniform boundedness principle makes bounded, so its images form a relatively compact set. Bounded linearity gives : for every , . Every norm-convergent subsequence of must therefore converge to . If the whole sequence did not converge to in norm, a subsequence staying a fixed positive distance from would have a norm-convergent further subsequence, a contradiction. This proves that compact operators send weak convergence to norm convergence.
Conversely, assume the stated complete continuity property. Its strong limit necessarily equals , because bounded linearity still supplies the weak limit. Every bounded sequence in a Hilbert space has a weakly convergent subsequence by weak sequential compactness in a Hilbert space. Applying the assumption to that subsequence gives a norm-convergent subsequence of the images. Thus the image of the unit ball is relatively sequentially compact and hence relatively compact. Complete continuity and compactness are equivalent on a Hilbert space.
Suppose is a compact operator and . The Uniform boundedness principle makes bounded. If did not converge in norm to , some subsequence would stay a fixed positive distance away. Compactness provides a further norm-convergent subsequence, say to . On the other hand, for every , , so its norm limit must be , a contradiction.
Conversely, if sends every weakly convergent sequence to a norm-convergent sequence, take any sequence in the closed unit ball. Weak compactness of that ball supplies a weakly convergent subsequence, whose images converge in norm by hypothesis. Thus every sequence in the image has a convergent subsequence in . Its closure is also sequentially compact: approximate its th member by an image point within . Since is a metric space, that closure is compact. We conclude
This is the principle that compact operators send weak convergence to norm convergence.
If is bounded and self-adjoint on a complex Hilbert space and is compact and self-adjoint, then
A singular Weyl sequence for stays singular for , because compact operators send weak convergence to norm convergence and therefore . Applying the same argument with proves the reverse inclusion. Finite-multiplicity isolated eigenvalues can move under such perturbations; the essential spectrum of a bounded self-adjoint operator is unchanged.