Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 3 21F b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
For , choose with and defineThe sequence on the right is Cauchy becauseand it converges because is complete. The same estimate shows that the limit is independent of the approximating sequence, is linear, and satisfiesIts norm is at most , while restriction to gives the reverse inequality, soAny two continuous extensions agree on the dense set and hence everywhere, proving uniqueness. This is the extension of a bounded linear operator from a dense subspace.
Completeness of was never used, so the result remains true when is incomplete. Completeness of is essential. For example, with , let the codomain be the incomplete normed space with the norm and let be the identity. An extension would have to send every limit in to itself and therefore could not take values in . This is the failure of dense-subspace extension into an incomplete codomain.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 1 22H b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Given , choose a sequence with , which is possible by part (a). The bound givesso is a Cauchy sequence. Since is a Banach space, it converges. DefineThe same estimate shows that this limit does not depend on the approximating sequence. Passing to the limit proves linearity andso . It agrees with on . If two bounded extensions existed, their difference would vanish on the dense subspace and, by continuity, on its closure . Thus the extension is unique. This is the extension of a bounded linear operator from a dense subspace.