Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 10 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Here “subspace” is understood to mean a closed closed linear subspace. Closedness matters: the finitely supported sequences are an infinite-dimensional algebraic subspace of , but contain no infinite-dimensional complete subspace. Indeed, any such subspace would be the countable union of its intersections with the finite-dimensional coordinate spaces, contrary to the Baire category theorem. We prove the assertion with the intended closedness convention, for .
Write , the l-p sequence space. Choose positive numbers with . Starting with , choose with and its first coordinates zero. This is possible because the kernel of finitely many coordinate linear functionals on an infinite-dimensional vector space is still infinite-dimensional. Choose so that the part of after coordinate has norm below . Let be its restriction to , and put . The triangle inequality givesThe vectors form a normalized block basic sequence. Their supports are disjoint, soConsequently is isometric to the l-p sequence space.
For each block choose a norm-one linear functional supported on with . The Hahn-Banach theorem supplies such a functional, including when . DefineThe series converges in the l-p sequence space, sinceAlso , so is a bounded projection onto . Now define the bounded linear operatorThis series converges in operator norm and . The Neumann series therefore makes invertible. Disjoint support gives . Thus lies in the closed subspace , is isomorphic to the l-p sequence space, and is the range of the bounded projection on the whole space . This proves the required copy of is complemented in the ambient , not just in .
Now let be an infinite-dimensional complemented subspace of . The construction supplies with and a bounded projection . Its restriction to gives the topological direct sumIf is a bounded projection, then is a bounded projection onto : its range lies in , and it fixes every element of . Hence is a complemented subspace of , so for some closed .
We give the absorption argument in the Pełczyński decomposition method explicitly. Reindexing coordinates by a bijection between and yields . Applying the fixed Banach space isomorphism in every coordinate givesThe extra is absorbed by shifting the countably many summands. The maps are bounded with bounded inverses because the same two-space decomposition is used uniformly in each summand; we may equip each finite direct sum with its equivalent -sum norm. Since , .
Pełczyński decomposition method 2026-10-14
For a Banach space satisfying , a complemented subspace is absorbed by : write , expand the countable sum, and absorb one additional copy of into the countably many summands. Hence . If is complemented in and contains a complemented copy of , write with complemented in ; the preceding argument gives . The decompositions are Banach space isomorphisms, not merely algebraic decompositions.
Rademacher span is not complemented in L1 2026-10-14
If the closed span of the Rademacher functions were a complemented subspace of , compose a projection with the inverse of its l2 sequence space parametrization. The Grothendieck theorem for L1 to Hilbert operators would make this map an absolutely summing operator. Its composition with the parametrization would make the identity on the infinite-dimensional l2 sequence space absolutely summing, contradicting its coordinate-vector test.
Suppose is a normalized block basic sequence in the l-p sequence space, , and . Choose norm-one linear functionals supported on the respective blocks with . The bounded linear operator is invertible by the Neumann series. The block projection has norm at most one, and projects onto the closed span of . Thus that span is a complemented subspace isomorphic to the l-p sequence space.