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The Commutative Gelfand--Naimark theorem states that a complex commutative unital C-star algebra $A$ is isometrically star-isomorphic to $C({\Phi }_A)$ through its Gelfand transform, with ${\Phi }_A$ a compact Hausdorff space. The l-infinity sequence space is such an algebra under coordinatewise multiplication and conjugation, with the supremum norm. Thereforegives the required isometric isomorphism.

Uniqueness as a Banach space representation uses the Banach–Stone theorem, rather than just uniqueness as an algebra representation. To justify the relevant theorem, the Riesz-Markov-Kakutani representation theorem givesthe extreme points of the dual unit ball of C(K). A norm-one measure whose variation measure is not concentrated at one point splits into two normalized restrictions to disjoint sets of positive variation, and so is not extreme. Conversely, equality in the variation bound shows that any decomposition of $\alpha {\delta }_t$ into the average of two dual-unit-ball elements forces both to be $\alpha {\delta }_t$: after removing the phase, the two measures must be positive and their average is concentrated at $t$.

If $U:C(K)\to C(L)$ is a surjective linear isometry, its dual map preserves these extreme points and their scalar orbits. Hence $U^{\ast }{\delta }_s=u(s){\delta }_{h(s)}$ for a bijection $h:L\to K$ and $|u(s)|=1$. Evaluating at $1$ gives the continuous function $u=U1$, whileshows that $h$ is continuous, since continuous functions determine the topology of a compact Hausdorff space. It is consequently a homeomorphism. Thus any other compact space representing ${\ell }^{\infty }$ is homeomorphic to this $K$. The Banach–Stone theorem is also stated in Leonard Tomczak's notes on András Zsák's functional analysis lectures.

Embed $\mathbb{N}$ by the evaluation characters $\iota (n)(a)=a_n$. They are distinct because the coordinate indicator functions $e_n$ distinguish them. Moreover, $e_n^2=e_n$, so every character has $\chi (e_n)\in \{0,1\}$. If $\chi (e_n)=1$, thenand hence $\chi =\iota (n)$. It follows that $\{\iota (n)\}=\{\chi :|\chi (e_n)-1|<1/2\}$ is open in $K$. Thus $\iota$ is a homeomorphism from the discrete natural numbers onto its image.

To prove density, suppose $D=\overline{\iota (\mathbb{N})}\ne K$. The Urysohn lemma provides a nonzero $v\in C(K)$ vanishing on $D$. Write $v=\Gamma (a)$. Then $a_n=v(\iota (n))=0$ for all $n$, so $a=0$ and $v=0$, a contradiction. Every bounded function $b:\mathbb{N}\to \mathbb{C}$ is an element of ${\ell }^{\infty }$, and $\Gamma (b)$ is its continuous extension to $K$. Density makes this extension unique. ThereforeThis identifies $K$ with the Stone-Čech compactification of the natural numbers.

Choose a set $B$ of $m$ column indices for which the square matrix $A_B$ is invertible. The associated basic solution sets $x_j=0$ for $j\notin B$ and solves $A_B{x}_B=b$. It is a basic feasible solution when all its coordinates are nonnegative.

Let $x$ be a basic feasible solution with basis $B$. If $x=(y+z)/2$ for $y,z\in X(b)$, then $x_j=0$ and nonnegativity force $y_j=z_j=0$ for every $j\notin B$. Since $A_B{y}_B=A_B{z}_B=b$ and $A_B$ is invertible, $y=z=x$. Thus $x$ is an extreme point.

Conversely, let $x$ be extreme and let $S=\{j:x_j>0\}$. If $|S|>m$, the corresponding columns are linearly dependent, so there is a nonzero vector $d$ supported on $S$ with $Ad=0$. For sufficiently small $\epsilon >0$, both $x+\epsilon d$ and $x-\epsilon d$ remain nonnegative and feasible, contradicting extremality. Hence $|S|\le m$. Enlarge $S$ to a set $B$ of $m$ indices. By the hypotheses $A_B$ is invertible, and $x$ is the resulting basic feasible solution. Therefore

Suppose $y$ in the capped simplex has a coordinate strictly between zero and one. Since ${\sum }_i{y}_i=k$ is an integer, it cannot have exactly one such coordinate: the other coordinates would contribute an integer sum. Hence there are distinct $i,j$ with $0<y_i,y_j<1$.

Choose $0<\epsilon <\min \{y_i,1-y_i,y_j,1-y_j\}$ and set $y^{\pm }=y\pm \epsilon (e_i-e_j)$, where $e_i,e_j$ are standard basis vectors. Both perturbed vectors satisfy the coordinate bounds and have the same coordinate sum. They are distinct and $y=(y^{+}+y^{-})/2$, so $y$ is not an extreme point.

Conversely, every zero-one vector in this convex polytope is an extreme point. If it were a nontrivial convex combination of two feasible vectors, each coordinate equal to zero would force both corresponding coordinates to be zero, and each coordinate equal to one would force both to be one. Thus the two vectors would equal the original one. The extreme points are therefore exactly the indicators of $k$-element subsets.

The required linear program isThere are $2n$ inequality constraints and one equality constraint, all independent of $x$.

The feasible set is the capped simplex, a nonempty compact set. A linear function attains its maximum at an extreme point; the previous part identifies these as the indicators of $k$-element subsets. At such a vector, the objective is the sum of the selected coordinates. Maximizing selects the $k$ largest coordinates, including when some are negative or tied. Equivalently, $f_k$ is the support function called the sum of the largest components.

An extreme point of a convex set $C$ is a point $x\in C$ that cannot be written as $x=(1-t)y+tz$ with $y\ne z$ in $C$ and $0<t<1$.

Start with the eight vertices of the unit cube. The constraint $x_1+x_2+x_3\le 5/2$ removes $(1,1,1)$ and retains the other seven. The cutting plane meets the three cube edges incident to the removed vertex atThese are new vertices. No others occur: at a vertex in three dimensions, three linearly independent bounding planes are active, and choosing triples from the six cube faces and the cutting plane yields precisely the listed points. Hence the ten extreme points are

For a real function in the $L^{\infty }$ unit ball, push uniform measure on $t\in [0,1]$ forward by the displayed sign-valued functions. In the weak-star topology this is a Borel probability concentrated on the extreme points, and Fubini's theorem shows that its barycenter is $f$. Weak-star compactness and separability of the predual $L^1$ place the example within Choquet theorem.

A vertex of a convex polytope is an extreme point: it cannot be expressed as a nontrivial convex combination of two distinct points in that polytope. In a full-dimensional simple polytope of dimension $n$, a vertex lies on exactly $n$ incident facets.