Let the columns of an invertible matrix be a new basis expressed in the old basis. The same vector has old coordinate vector and new coordinate vector . If a covector has old row , its new row is , sinceThus the scalar dual pairing stays unchanged. If covector coefficients are stored as a column , their new column is ; this is the inverse transpose of the transformation on vector coordinates. These conventions express the covariance and contravariance of vectors. [ref]
https://www.math.brown.edu/streil/papers/LADW/HTML_2026_04-30/Ch8.html. Sergei Treil, Linear Algebra Done Wrong, §8.1.1: coordinate changes in the dual space
.For the basis , ,The linear functional has rows and . Both calculations give five: . Changing the basis changes the descriptions, not the measured value.
Dual pairing Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
The dual pairing evaluates a linear functional on a vector:It is bilinear: it is linear in each argument separately. Even over the complex numbers, this algebraic evaluation has no complex conjugation. An inner product instead has two vectors as inputs and, over the complex numbers, is sesquilinear. For and , the dual pairing equals five. Its value is independent of the basis used to describe its two inputs.
Dual space Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The dual space of a vector space over a field is the vector space of all linear functionals . Think of a vector as an input and a linear functional as a scalar-valued measurement of that input. For , the rules , , and are different elements of the dual space. None needs a notion of length or angle.
Its operations combine measurements pointwise:The dual basis explains the finite-dimensional structure: specifying a linear functional's values on a basis determines its value on every vector. Thus an -dimensional vector space has an -dimensional dual space. The spaces have the same dimension, but their elements play different roles: an input and a rule that measures an input. [ref]
Linear Algebra Done Right by Sheldon Axler (4th edition). Axler, Linear Algebra Done Right, fourth edition, §3F, definitions 3.109–3.112
.This separation is useful when changing coordinates. The dual pairing must stay the same while the component lists for and change in opposite ways. Covector transformation under a change of basis makes the compensation explicit. An inner product on a finite-dimensional real vector space gives one way to represent each linear functional by a vector, but that representation uses the chosen inner product; the dual space itself does not require one.
Here dual space means the algebraic dual: all linear functionals. For a topological vector space, the continuous dual space keeps only the continuous linear functionals. In infinite dimension, this can be a proper vector subspace; discontinuous functional detected by vanishing sequence tails gives an example. The distinction matters when a scalar-valued measurement must respond continuously to small input changes.
Suppose and . For , the subgradient inequality and dual pairing bound giveThus forces every minimizer to solve exactly. Comparison of penalties then shows it is a J-minimizing solution, and . The conclusion also holds for all when . One-homogeneity is not needed for this argument.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 6 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For , the real Lp space is the vector space of real measurable functions with , identifying functions equal almost everywhere. Its Lp norm is . For , take the essentially bounded real measurable functions, with the same identification and norm . The identification makes each norm definite; absolute homogeneity follows from the Lebesgue integral, and the triangle inequality follows from Minkowski inequality for finite , or directly from the essential supremum for .
Here is a completeness proof valid on any measure space. For , a Cauchy sequence has a subsequence with . Choose measurable function representatives and put . By Minkowski inequality and the monotone convergence theorem,Consequently the series converges absolutely almost everywhere. Define there, and define it to be zero on the measurable exceptional null set. Then , and Fatou lemma applied to each tail gives . The original Cauchy sequence also converges in Lp norm, by the triangle inequality. For , choose the same subsequence using the essential supremum norm. Outside one measurable null set, all the bounds hold and is bounded. The series then converges uniformly there, with an essentially bounded measurable function limit and the same tail estimate in essential supremum norm. Thus all these spaces are Banach spaces.
The duality of Lp spaces says that, for and , the mapis an isometric isomorphism of normed spaces. This form of Lp duality on an arbitrary measure space requires no finiteness hypothesis on . At , a standard version assumes a sigma-finite measure and identifies with through the same dual pairing. That endpoint assertion must not be made without a suitable measure-space hypothesis.
We first prove the required duality of Lp spaces for a finite measure. Let and set . For disjoint measurable , the indicator functions of their partial unions converge in Lp norm to that of their union, so is countably additive. It has finite variation measure: for every finite measurable partition , choosing real signs givesAlso implies . The Radon-Nikodym theorem supplies a Radon-Nikodym derivative with . Linearity gives for simple functions. Uniform approximation by simple functions extends this identity to bounded measurable functions: both their Lp norm errors and the errors in integration against tend to zero.
To establish the correct integrability, test with the bounded measurable function . Since , writing givesThe second inequality is also valid when . The monotone convergence theorem gives and . Density of simple functions in the Lp space, together with Hölder's inequality, now gives on all of . Conversely Hölder's inequality gives . If , testing againstgives and , so . This also proves uniqueness of the representing Radon-Nikodym derivative.
For completeness, the passage to an arbitrary measure space can be made without losing a hypothesis in the reflexive Banach space argument below. On a sigma-finite measure space, exhaust by nested finite-measure sets . The representing Radon-Nikodym derivatives on agree on overlaps by uniqueness. Their glued density has Lp norm by the monotone convergence theorem, and represents because in Lp norm. Every on an arbitrary measure space is supported on a sigma-finite measurable set: the sets have finite measure and their union is .
Use support localization of an Lp functional as follows. For a sigma-finite measurable , let be the operator norm of restricted to functions supported in . The support observation gives . Choose approaching this supremum and set ; then . If a sigma-finite had , functions supported on the disjoint sets have the direct-sum Lp norm. Optimizing their two scalar coefficients by Hölder's inequality, and using functions approaching the two restriction operator norms, would givea contradiction. Thus vanishes on functions supported outside . The density on , extended by zero, represents globally. The case simply uses . This proves the stated Lp duality on an arbitrary measure space.
Finally let and let , where stars denote continuous dual spaces. Compose with to obtain the bounded linear functional on . Applying duality of Lp spaces with the exponents reversed gives with . For the canonical embedding into the bidual , its value on is also . Since is onto, . Its norm is by the same dual pairing norm identity. Therefore , which proves that is a reflexive Banach space through its actual canonical embedding into the bidual.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 327 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Again use and distribution dual pairings with complex bilinearity. The Malgrange–Ehrenpreis theorem asserts that every nonzero constant-coefficient differential operator defined by a polynomial has a fundamental solution of a linear differential operator:If is constant, take . For positive degree , write for the highest homogeneous part. A nonzero polynomial cannot vanish on all of , so choose a real unit vector with . A change of coordinates by an orthogonal matrix makes it the last coordinate direction. In these coordinates,Crucially the leading coefficient is constant and never vanishes as varies.
The finite-height polynomial root avoidance construction gives the needed Hörmander staircase. Set for . For each fixed , the fundamental theorem of algebra supplies roots , with multiplicity. A root's imaginary part can be within distance strictly less than one of at most one candidate height, since those heights are separated by three. The pigeonhole principle therefore leaves at least one height with for all roots. At that height, for every real ,No continuous labelling of the roots is required. To select the heights measurably, defineEach is closed, since the coefficients are continuous in . Continuity in makes the rational test equivalent to the bound for all . The are therefore disjoint Borel sets covering . The union of horizontal fibresis a Hörmander staircase, with bounded imaginary height and a uniform nonzero denominator. For , the transverse space has one point, and this is simply the choice of one horizontal line.
For example, has roots . One may select for , and for . Then the first region has , while in the second each root is at least two units from the chosen height. The figure shows the height projection of these horizontal fibres, rather than additional connecting contours.
Define a linear functional on test functions byTo establish that this is a distribution, fix a compact set containing the support of , inside a radius- ball. The Fourier decay in a bounded complex strip estimate follows by applying to :The finite bound on the heights absorbs all exponential factors and powers of into . Taking and using proves absolute convergence and the required finite-order continuity on each fixed support set. Hence .
Now the formal transpose identity and the Fourier derivative identity giveThe polynomial denominator cancels in the pairing for . For each fixed real , the remaining function of is entire and rapidly decreasing in its real part throughout . The Cauchy integral theorem therefore allows each horizontal fibre to be shifted to the real axis; its truncated vertical end integrals tend to zero. Absolute convergence justifies Fubini's theorem and the finite sum over the measurable partition. ThusThe last equality is Fourier inversion. Transforming back from the orthogonal coordinates preserves and gives the required fundamental solution of a linear differential operator for the original operator. The staircase is allowed to jump: after cancellation the shift is performed on each one-dimensional fibre, so no assertion that is a smooth contour is used. This construction proves a distributional fundamental solution, without claiming a tempered-growth estimate.
For , use the smoothing convolution with a test functionIndeed is a smooth function, with . On each compact set of values, all translated test functions have supports in one fixed compact set, so differentiation is justified by the continuity of the distribution. Compact support of makes the convolution well defined even when is not tempered. It does not imply compact support of .
Finally the affine solution space of a linear equation isIf every homogeneous solution is represented by a smooth function, so is every . Conversely, if every solution for this fixed is represented by a smooth function, then for any homogeneous solution , the solution is smooth, and subtracting the smooth shows that is smooth. Hence All inhomogeneous solutions are smooth functions exactly when all homogeneous solutions are smooth functions. This is a global statement on for the stated data; no additional local regularity theorem is being assumed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 326 1 1 2 e Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Take the weak topology on the reflexive Banach space . A bounded linear operator is weak-to-weak continuous: implies for every , by its adjoint operator. The weak lower semicontinuity of the Hilbert norm therefore makes weakly sequentially lower semicontinuous.
This functional is finite everywhere and nonnegative. If it has coercivity, the direct method in the calculus of variations supplies a global minimizer . Squaring the residual does not change its global minimizers. Here the adjoint operator has codomain , since the source is a Banach space. Differentiating the squared residual along every real direction gives in the dual pairing, hence the normal equation for a linear inverse problem . HenceThe converse fails. For , , and , the datum is in the operator range, but while . Thus admissible data do not imply coercivity of the residual; an unpenalized null space already prevents it.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 326 3 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For a functional on a real Banach space, its convex conjugate is defined on the dual space byHere is the dual pairing. For complex spaces, use its real part, equivalently regard the space as real for convex analysis. The convex conjugate is a convex function, being the supremum of affine functions of , even when itself is not convex.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 326 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let , , and . The subgradient inequality, the dual pairing bound, and giveMinimality of in the exact penalty method givesCombining them yieldsThe coefficient is strictly positive, soNow minimality gives , and exact feasibility plus the defining minimality of gives the reverse inequality. Thus is a J-minimizing solution. Finally,This exact-penalty threshold from a source condition does not require one-homogeneity; convexity and the source subgradient suffice. If , the same argument works for every , interpreting the upper threshold as infinite.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 327 1 a i Solution 2026-09-28
The Schwartz space on the real line isThese seminorms define its Fréchet space topology. The space of tempered distributions is its continuous dual space,
With the angular-frequency convention, the Fourier transform of a Schwartz function isIt maps continuously to itself. The transform of is defined through the dual pairing:up to the fixed reflection and factor if the inverse-transform convention is used for the test function.
