Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 5 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Work over or . A Fréchet space is a Hausdorff, complete, metrizable locally convex space. Its topology is generated by a countable separating family of seminorms . A neighbourhood base at zero consists of finite intersectionsReplacing by makes the family increasing. One compatible translation-invariant metric isCompleteness means that a sequence Cauchy for all these seminorms converges in the space. The separating condition ensures that only when .
Let denote the continuous dual space for the original topology . The weak topology is the coarsest topology making all continuous. Its basic zero-neighbourhoods areEquivalently, it is generated by the seminorms .
To prove the Hausdorff property, fix . Some continuous seminorm has . On the one-dimensional span of , define . Then . The real or complex Hahn-Banach theorem extends this to with . Thus is originally continuous and . This proves continuous-dual point separation. For distinct , inverse images under such an of disjoint small scalar neighbourhoods of and are disjoint weak neighbourhoods. Hence the weak topology is Hausdorff.
If a linear functional is originally continuous, it belongs to and is weakly continuous by definition. Conversely, is coarser than , so every weakly continuous scalar function is originally continuous. In particular,This special case of the continuous dual of a weak topology needs no completeness argument.
For the linear map , original continuity implies that whenever . Each such composition is weakly continuous on , so the defining property of the target weak topology makes weak-to-weak continuous.
Conversely, suppose is weak-to-weak continuous. Every , , is then weakly continuous, and hence continuous for . We show that the graph of a linear operator is closed in the original product topology. If in and in , thenBy continuous-dual point separation on , this forces . The product is metrizable, so sequential closedness is closedness. The closed graph theorem for Fréchet spaces now gives original continuity of .
The relevant version of that theorem does use completeness of both spaces: a closed graph is a Fréchet space, its first-coordinate projection is a continuous linear bijection onto , and the open mapping theorem for Fréchet spaces gives a continuous inverse. Composing with the second-coordinate projection gives . ThusEquality of continuous scalar functionals does not imply equality of the two topologies; the closed graph theorem for Fréchet spaces is the extra step that makes this conclusion valid.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 5 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Write a finite binary word as and denote its prefix cylinder set byMore generally, a cylinder set fixes finitely many coordinates, or prescribes a subset of their finite coordinate product, leaving all other coordinates free. Each coordinate factor is discrete, so finite-coordinate inverse images are both open and closed. Thus cylinders are clopen. The basic open sets of the product topology restrict only finitely many coordinates, so cylinders form a base. Any finite-coordinate cylinder is a finite union of prefix cylinders of one sufficiently long common length; the prefix cylinders therefore also form a base.
The Bernoulli space here is Cantor space, with compatible metricIt is a compact metric space: from any sequence, choose successively subsequences constant in the first, second and subsequent coordinates, and take the diagonal subsequence. Agreement on the first coordinates bounds the distance by , proving convergence. Compactness also follows from Tychonoff theorem.
Every cylinder indicator function is continuous because the cylinder is clopen. Hence is a vector subspace of the space of continuous functions on a compact space. To prove density, fix and . By uniform continuity, choose so that implies . Choose a point in each length- prefix cylinder and putThen and . This proves cylinder-function density in Cantor space:
Positivity of implies monotonicity. The pointwise bounds therefore giveEvaluation on attains equality, so is continuous and has norm one. This is the norm of a positive functional on C(K).
The object extended to open sets is the set function , rather than the functional itself. Positivity gives , and linearity gives finite additivity on disjoint cylinders. To construct its extension directly, use the disjoint cylinder decomposition of open subsets of Cantor space. For an open , take the shortest prefixes for which . They are prefix-free, their cylinders are disjoint, and their union is . DefineFor , use the empty prefix; for , use the empty sum.
This value is independent of the chosen disjoint prefix-cylinder decomposition. Indeed, compare two such decompositions and . For each fixed , its intersections with the give a disjoint open cover of the compact cylinder . Compactness reduces this to finitely many nonempty intersections. Each intersection is a prefix cylinder or is empty, so finite additivity gives . Sum over and rearrange the nonnegative double sum. Doing the same with each proves equality of the two totals.
For disjoint open sets , combine their disjoint cylinder decompositions to obtain one for . Rearrangement of nonnegative sums proves countable additivity on this family of open sets. The extension is unique because any countably additive extension must have the prescribed sum on every disjoint cylinder decomposition. Open sets are not themselves a sigma-algebra; countable additivity here concerns disjoint open families and their open union.
For the Borel probability measure, let be the algebra of finite unions of prefix cylinders. It is also the algebra of clopen sets, because every clopen set is compact and has a finite cylinder cover. Define on . If with all sets in , compactness of gives a finite subcover by the . Disjointness makes all remaining members empty. Thus finite additivity already establishes the premeasure condition.
The Caratheodory extension theorem gives a unique measure on . This is the Borel sigma-algebra, since the cylinders are a countable base; . Its values on open sets agree with the extension above. For cylinder simple functions,Both sides are continuous in the supremum norm, so cylinder-function density in Cantor space givesAny other Borel probability measure with this property agrees on every cylinder indicator function, hence on , and uniqueness in the Caratheodory extension theorem makes it equal to . This proves the Cantor-space representation of positive functionals without assuming the general representation theorem.
Now let be the supplied continuous surjection. The pullbackis a unital isometric embedding: surjectivity gives . On the vector subspace , define . This is well-defined, has norm one and satisfies .
The real Hahn-Banach theorem extends to on all of with the same norm. Norm preservation alone does not automatically mean positivity, so verify it. If , then andScaling proves positivity for every nonnegative . This is the unital contraction positivity criterion, giving a positive extension from a unital subspace of C(K).
Represent by the already constructed Borel probability measure on and take the pushforward measure . Continuity of makes its Borel inverse images measurable, and . The pushforward integral identity givesThis is compact-metric representation by Cantor-space pullback. The hypothesis already excludes an empty . The measure is on the Borel sets; no uniqueness claim on an unspecified larger collection of subsets is needed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 7 1 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
True. We prove weak-star topology on an entire infinite-dimensional Banach dual is not metrizable. Suppose instead that has a countable local base at zero. Choose a basic weak-star topology neighbourhood , with its conditions involving a finite set . The still form a local base.
For any , the set is a neighbourhood of zero, so some is contained in it. Every functional annihilating , and every scalar multiple of that functional, belongs to . Consequently every such functional also annihilates . This forcesIndeed a finite-dimensional span is norm closed, and the Hahn-Banach theorem supplies a bounded linear functional vanishing on it and nonzero at any point outside it.
It follows that . Each span is a proper finite-dimensional closed vector subspace and has empty interior in the infinite-dimensional Banach space . This contradicts the Baire category theorem. HenceThe uniform norm bound that made the metric work on is absent on the whole dual. The answers to (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) are therefore all true.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 7 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
We prove Kantorovich duality theorem here by a positive-functional extension argument; it produces the minimizing transport plan at the same time as equality of the values. Let and . This is a bounded continuous function because is a compact metric space. Write for the real space of continuous functions on a compact space, and letOn this vector subspace define . It is well-defined: two representations differ by a constant in the first variable and the opposite constant in the second, and both measures have mass one. It is positive, since implies and hence . Also .
Define the majorant envelope, which is a sublinear functional:Constants majorize every , and positivity gives , so this quantity is finite. Taking approximate minimizing majorants proves subadditivity; rescaling majorants proves positive homogeneity. Moreover for , and subtracting from a majorant provesThe dual value in the question is exactlySubadditivity at gives .
On , assign the value to . If the representation is unique. If , then , so the assignment is still well-defined. It is dominated by : for , use ; for , positive homogeneity gives . Together with the translation identity, these verify domination in both cases.
The real Hahn-Banach theorem extends this functional to with . If , then , so . Thus is a positive linear functional, with and . Positivity also gives , so is continuous. The Riesz-Markov-Kakutani representation theorem supplies a Borel probability measure on the compact space , satisfying .
For every , its pullback belongs to , so . Likewise . Uniqueness in the Riesz-Markov-Kakutani representation theorem shows that these are exactly the two marginal distributions. Finally, every feasible pair gives a lower bound for the cost of every transport plan, by integration. Our constructed plan achieves that bound:This Kantorovich duality by positive extension establishes the requested existence and equality without assuming an optimal plan in advance.
The metric structure additionally gives the Kantorovich–Rubinstein theorem formulation. For a feasible pair define . The triangle inequality for makes one-Lipschitz continuous, , and . Hence the dual objective is at most . Conversely is feasible for every one-Lipschitz . ThereforeNormalizing for a fixed gives a uniformly bounded equicontinuous family; it is closed and compact in the uniform topology by the Arzela-Ascoli theorem. The objective is uniformly continuous on this family, so the supremum is attained as well. In particular, is the first Wasserstein distance between the two measures.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 6 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the Hausdorff convention for a locally convex space: a real vector space is equipped with a separating family of seminorms. Thus each is nonnegative, subadditive and satisfies , and for every some has . The topology has a neighborhood basis at consisting ofEquivalently, it is the coarsest vector-space topology making all these seminorms continuous. The separating condition is precisely what makes this topology Hausdorff. If the Hausdorff requirement were omitted, continuous linear functionals could not distinguish points in the common kernel of the seminorms.
The continuous dual space consists of all continuous linear functionals . We first prove the needed Hahn-Banach theorem. Let be a real-valued sublinear function on , meaning and for , and let be linear on a vector subspace , with . To extend across , writeThe necessary bounds on areThey are compatible becauseTaking one variable equal to zero also shows that are finite. Choose . The upper bound proves domination when , after dividing by ; the lower bound proves it when , after dividing by . Thus on . This is the one-dimensional dominated extension of a real linear functional.
Order all dominated extensions of by extension of their domains. A chain has an upper bound obtained by taking the union of the domains and linear functionals. Zorn's lemma gives a maximal extension, and the one-dimensional construction shows that its domain must be all of . We have therefore proved the real dominated-extension theorem. In particular, when is a seminorm, domination at both and gives .
For , choose a continuous seminorm with , and define on its one-dimensional span. Then . Extend by the theorem just proved to with . This bound makes continuous, and . Applying this to the difference of two distinct points proves that separates the points of , the continuous-dual separation theorem for Hausdorff locally convex spaces.
For separation from a closed linear subspace, choose a basic balanced neighborhood of zero such that . WriteThen for every . On , define , which is well-defined since . For ,for the inequality is immediate. The proved extension theorem gives a continuous dominated by , withThis proves separation of a point from a closed linear subspace without using any unproved Hahn-Banach extension or separation result.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 6 2 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let be the quotient map. Since is norm closed and has finite codimension, the quotient is a finite-dimensional normed space. Choose a basis of its continuous dual and compose its coordinate linear functionals with . This gives such thatIf , it vanishes on . Evaluation at is weak-star continuous, and is weak-star dense, so it vanishes on all of . The dual norm formula gives . Hence .
Assume ; the zero space is trivially normed by any positive constant. We claim thatIf not, there would be and with . The sequence is bounded. Finite-dimensionality of gives a norm-convergent subsequence with limit . Then , and is norm closed because is Banach. Thus and , a contradiction. This is positive distance between a unit sphere and a disjoint finite-dimensional subspace.
Fix , identifying it with , and put . On , define . The distance definition givesThe Hahn-Banach theorem extends it to with , and .
Apply part (ii) with the Banach space , its finite-dimensional dual vector subspace , and the bidual space element . For every it supplies satisfyingThus . Normalize by and let to obtainHomogeneity gives, for all ,Consequently a finite-codimensional weak-star dense dual subspace is norming, with . Since is a real linear vector subspace and its ball is symmetric, the same supremum is obtained if an absolute value is inserted. The argument uses near-unit interpolation and a limiting supremum, not an assertion that the supremum is attained.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 68 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A one-dimensional Sobolev representative is absolutely continuous. For , the fundamental theorem of calculus and Holder inequality giveThus has a representative in . The qualification about representatives matters because a Sobolev space element is an almost-everywhere equivalence class.
In two dimensions, the Sobolev fundamental theorem of calculus on lines and Fubini's theorem imply that almost every horizontal and vertical slice belongs to and has this one-dimensional Hölder continuity. The slice seminorm depends on the slice; this does not give one uniform pointwise estimate on the square. For , Morrey's inequality additionally gives a globally Hölder continuous representative of exponent . For , global continuity need not hold. For example, with a smooth cutoff around an interior point, lies in when , but is unbounded. At , the cutoff version of is unbounded while its gradient has finite squared integral, sinceThese examples distinguish Sobolev slicing and planar continuity from a false two-dimensional application of the interval exponent.
Put . A BV space is a function whose distributional derivative is a finite vector-valued Radon measure. Equivalently its total variation seminorm is finite:The BV space has norm . For , integration by parts against the compactly supported field gives . Conversely the measurable choice on nonzero gradients attains the pointwise bound. Approximating this bounded field by smooth fields, using interior cutoffs and the finite measure , justifies the supremum and givesIt is a norm of the derivative measure, rather than a pointwise derivative at jump discontinuities.
There is a genuine mismatch in the printed definition of the next functional. Its constraints on and are independent. Hence its stated supremum, denoted , separates asThe scalar supremum is , by cutoffs approaching one, and the vector supremum is the variation. For an affine image signal with , this gives , whereas the displayed square-root area would give . The intended relaxed graph-area functional instead uses the coupled pointwise constraint , givingwhere is the singular part of . Both readings have a minimizer, but their equations are different.
Here is the direct method in the calculus of variations for either reading. Let be the literal or the corrected , and define the energy on , assigning infinity elsewhere. A minimizing sequence has bounded energy by comparison with . Both , so its variation is bounded, and the fidelity bounds , hence also and . By bounded-variation compactness, a subsequence converges strongly in to , and after another subsequence almost everywhere. Fatou's lemma provesThe regularizer is a supremum of affine functionals continuous in , since the test-field divergence is bounded. It is therefore lower semicontinuous. Combining the two lower bounds proves existence of a minimizer. In fact the convex regularizer and the strictly convex squared fidelity make the minimizer unique up to null sets. This does not assert that the minimizer must belong to .
For the intended graph area, conditionally assume that the minimizer is in . For , differentiate at . The derivative of the integrand is bounded by , so dominated convergence applies. The weak equation isthat is,This is the graph-area Euler-Lagrange equation. Compactly supported variations impose no boundary condition in this statement.
For the literal printed supremum, the constant drops out and one obtains total variation denoising. Its total variation calibration form isThe distributional equation means . In particular wherever the gradient is nonzero; writing this quotient without handling zero gradients would be incomplete. Formally the one-sided derivative of isMinimality in the directions and bounds the remaining linear functional by the second integral. The Hahn-Banach theorem extends it on that zero-gradient set to a bounded vector field of magnitude at most one, furnishing and the displayed weak equation. Thus the literal definition has a nonsmooth subgradient equation, not the square-root equation above.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 8 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A subspace is topologically complete if its subspace topology is induced by some complete metric. The compatible complete metric need not be the restriction of the displayed ambient metric. For example, an open interval is topologically complete although its usual metric is incomplete.
Suppose is a compatible complete metric on . For each and , choose an ambient open set containing , contained in , and with -diameter of at most . Such sets exist because the two topologies on agree. Put . Clearly .
If , choose with . Then , so in the ambient metric. For fixed , the point belongs to some open , and eventually all belong to this set. Their pairwise -distances are then at most . Hence is -Cauchy, and completeness gives a limit . Compatibility gives , forcing . ThusThis proves the G-delta criterion for topological completeness in the required direction.
The converse is true in a complete metric ambient space. If with each open in complete , define , omitting any term whose complement is empty. A compatible complete metric on isContinuity of each and the uniformly small series tail show that has the original topology. A -Cauchy sequence is -Cauchy, hence converges to some . For each , its real coordinates form a Cauchy sequence and remain bounded. Since distance to a closed set is continuous, , so for every . The same coordinate convergence and series-tail argument give convergence in . Thus is complete.
For the normed-space claim, embed densely in its norm completion . Topological completeness and the preceding criterion make a dense G-delta set in , hence comeagre. Every translate is also comeagre. The Baire category theorem in the complete space implies that is nonempty. If lies in that intersection, then . This holds for every , soThis is the comeagre subgroup completeness argument.
Finally let with its weak-star topology. Put and . The dual norm is the supremum of the continuous evaluation moduli on the unit ball of , so every is relatively closed. Also .
Each has empty relative interior. Given and a basic weak-star neighborhood restricting finitely many evaluations on , the Hahn-Banach theorem gives a nonzero functional annihilating their finite-dimensional span, because is infinite-dimensional. All retain those evaluations. Their norm varies continuously with and becomes unbounded; choose so that . This point lies in the neighborhood inside but outside . Thus is a nonempty countable union of relatively closed nowhere dense sets and is not a Baire space. ConsequentlyThis weak-star open dual ball category obstruction works without assuming that is separable or that the weak-star ball is metrizable.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 8 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the standard setting of a compact metrizable convex set in a Hausdorff locally convex real topological vector space, with its metrizable topology. Write for the continuous affine real functions on . The affine upper envelope of a bounded real function isConstants make this infimum finite, and . An infimum of affine continuous majorants is concave and upper semicontinuous, hence Borel. For continuous it is the upper concave envelope appropriate to barycentric measures; it is not the pointwise maximum of and a selected affine function.
For a fixed probability , define on real . Affine majorants showThus is sublinear and for affine . On the span of , the linear functional taking to is dominated by : the negative-scalar condition follows from . For start from the zero subspace. The Hahn-Banach theorem extends it to a linear functional on with and .
If , then , so . Also and , forcing . Positivity gives , and the Riesz-Markov-Kakutani representation theorem produces a Borel probability with . ThereforeFor affine , testing both and gives : the two measures have the same barycenter. This proves the requested supporting measure lemma for affine upper envelopes.
Choquet's theorem: every has a Borel probability measure concentrated on the extreme points of whose barycenter is ; equivalently,Concentration is a measure-one assertion, not a claim that the topological support must be a closed subset of .
To prove it, let be the measures satisfying all the displayed affine equalities. It is nonempty because it contains , and it is weakly closed in the compact space , hence compact. Let be strictly convex, as permitted. Choose maximizing . Apply the supporting measure lemma with and . It gives with the same affine integrals, so , andThus has integral zero. If is not extreme, write with and distinct . Strict convexity and every affine majorant giveTherefore the nonnegative gap is strictly positive at every nonextreme point. It is Borel, and is Borel by the allowed G-delta set assertion. Its zero integral forces , proving Choquet's theorem by strict convexity. No uniqueness is asserted for the representing measure.
For the real example, give its closed unit ball the weak-star topology , not the norm topology. The Banach-Alaoglu theorem makes it compact, and separability of makes this ball metrizable. Its extreme points are exactly the classes satisfying almost everywhere. Indeed, if on a positive-measure set, adding and subtracting times its indicator decomposes nontrivially inside the ball. Conversely, if almost everywhere and with , pointwise equality at the endpoints of forces almost everywhere. This is the extreme-point criterion for the L-infinity unit ball.
For the hinted case , put and . Then are extreme andhas barycenter . If is null, the two point masses coincide.
For a general real , choose a measurable representative in and set, for ,Every is extreme. The map into the weak-star compact ball is Borel: for each , the function is measurable by joint measurability and integration; a countable dense family of such tests generates the ball's topology and Borel sigma-algebra. The measure is independent of changes to on a null set. For each ,The integrand paired with is dominated by , so Fubini's theorem yieldsThese continuous linear tests define the weak-star barycenter, hence that barycenter is . Together with , this is the required threshold Choquet representation in L-infinity.
If is instead taken over complex scalars, its extreme points satisfy the same unit-modulus condition. Write , with and , choosing where . Replace the threshold family by . Its members have unit modulus and its average is , so the same pushforward and Fubini argument gives a representing measure in the real locally convex interpretation of the complex ball.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 6 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
All vector spaces in this solution are complex, while convex combinations use real coefficients. An extreme point of a convex set is one for which , and , forces . Equivalently, is not the midpoint of two distinct points of .
The Krein-Milman theorem says that every nonempty compact convex set in a Hausdorff locally convex space is the closed convex hull of its extreme points. Here is a proof. A face of a convex set is a convex set such that whenever an interior point of a segment in belongs to , both endpoints belong to . Consider nonempty compact faces, ordered by reverse inclusion. A chain has nonempty intersection by compactness and the finite intersection property; that intersection is again a compact face. The Zorn lemma therefore gives a minimal nonempty compact face .
If contains distinct , a continuous real linear functional on the underlying real locally convex space distinguishes them. Such a linear functional exists because the space is Hausdorff and locally convex, by the Hahn-Banach theorem. The maximizers of on form a nonempty proper compact face of . A face of a face is a face of , contradicting minimality. Therefore is a singleton, yielding an extreme point. The same argument inside any nonempty compact face of supplies an extreme point of lying in that face.
Let be the closed convex hull of the extreme points of . It is a nonempty closed subset of compact , hence compact. If , the Hahn-Banach separation theorem provides a continuous real linear functional with . Its maximizer set on is a nonempty compact face, which contains an extreme point of . But and , a contradiction. Thus , proving Krein-Milman theorem.
For a nonempty compact Hausdorff space , the extreme points of the dual unit ball of C(K) areThis is the permitted description without proof, with denoting the complex space of continuous functions on a compact space equipped with the supremum norm. If is empty, and the closed unit ball of its continuous dual space has the single extreme point instead.
The complex Banach–Stone theorem states that a surjective complex-linear isometric isomorphism of normed spaces has the formwhere and is a homeomorphism. Conversely, every such map is a surjective complex-linear isometric isomorphism of normed spaces for the supremum norm.
To prove this, suppose first that are nonempty. The Banach-space adjoint is a bijective isometric isomorphism of normed spaces on the continuous dual spaces, so it bijects their closed unit balls and preserves extreme points. The displayed extreme point description gives uniquelyUniqueness follows by evaluating at the constant function , and then using that continuous functions separate points of a compact Hausdorff space. Evaluation gives the required formula for , and is continuous. Surjectivity of on extreme points proves surjectivity of : the preimage of any is for some . If , every function in the range of has equal values at these two points after division by ; surjectivity of and separation of points force . Thus is bijective.
For every , is continuous. The evaluation map , , is a continuous injection of a compact Hausdorff space into a Hausdorff product topology, hence a homeomorphism onto its image. Continuity of every coordinate proves continuity of . A continuous bijection between compact Hausdorff spaces is a homeomorphism. Conversely the weighted-composition formula plainly preserves the supremum norm, and its inverse isIf one compact space is empty, a surjective isometric isomorphism of normed spaces forces the other to be empty, and the empty homeomorphism gives the corresponding trivial case. This completes Banach–Stone theorem.
Neither the space of sequences converging to zero nor can be isometrically a continuous dual space of a Banach space. Indeed, every nonzero continuous dual space has a nonempty weak-star compact closed unit ball by Banach-Alaoglu theorem, and Krein-Milman theorem then guarantees an extreme point. A bijective linear isometry preserves extreme points of closed unit balls.
The closed unit ball of has no extreme points. Given with , choose with and . The two distinct elements remain in that closed unit ball and have midpoint .
The closed unit ball of the complex Lp space also has no extreme points. An element of norm less than one can be perturbed by a sufficiently small nonzero Lp space element in both directions. If , the non-atomic measure admits a measurable set of mass ; for example the continuous function attains . Put . For , the distinct functions both have Lp normwith the two coefficients interchanged for the minus sign. Their midpoint is . Thus neither proposed space is isometrically a Banach dual.
Finally, is a connected space, whereas is disconnected. They cannot be homeomorphic. By Banach–Stone theorem, and are not isometrically isomorphic as complex Banach spaces.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 6 5 Solution 2026-10-06
We prove the required Hahn-Banach theorem for a seminorm directly. First suppose the vector space is real. At an intermediate extension stage, let be a linear functional with , and let . Extending to amounts to choosing . The upper domination requiresThe interval is nonempty: for all ,Its endpoints are finite since inserting zero gives bounds and , while every lower candidate is below every upper candidate. Choose in the interval and put . For , the upper bound with proves . For , writing and applying the lower bound with proves the same inequality. The case is already known. Applying this domination to and using gives .
Partially order all dominated linear functional extensions of the original by extension of their domains and values. They form a nonempty set. The union along any chain is a well-defined dominated linear functional on a vector subspace, so every chain has an upper bound. The Zorn lemma gives a maximal extension. If its domain were not , the preceding one-dimensional construction would enlarge it, a contradiction. Thus the required extension exists on .
For a complex vector space, apply the proved real result to on the underlying real vector subspace. Let be the resulting real linear functional, with , and setIt is additive and real-linear, and , so it is complex-linear. On , the identity proves . Choose with and when . ThenThe bound is immediate if . This proves the real and complex seminorm forms of Hahn-Banach theorem without invoking any version of that theorem.
For the distance to a set assertion, let . Define on the linear functional . The decomposition is unique because , and for ,For the bound is immediate. Apply the just-proved Hahn-Banach theorem with to get , , , and . Choose with . Sinceand , passage to the limit gives . Thus . This version of the Hahn-Banach distance formula needs neither a closed nor an attained distance to a set.
For the Banach limit construction below, take the real l-infinity sequence space, let be its left shift on bounded sequences, put , and let . This is a vector subspace and its distance to a set from determines the construction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 7 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Identify with the Boolean hypercube , with coordinatewise multiplication and normalized Haar measure assigning mass to each point. Its Bernoulli function is a Rademacher random variable. The Walsh functions on a hypercube are the Walsh characters , indexed by all subsets , including . Independence of the sign coordinates gives . There are characters, equal to the dimension of , so they form an orthonormal basis.
Flipping coordinate negates exactly when . Thus the coordinate-flip generator on a hypercube satisfiesFor , Parseval identity gives . Equivalently its Dirichlet form of a Markov chain iswhere flips coordinate .
Set and . Since , its Walsh expansion contains only sets of even size. Every nonconstant such set has , giving the even-function spectral gap on a hypercubeAt each the Hahn-Banach theorem supplies a real supporting linear functional of norm at most one with ; for a complex normed space use the real part of a complex norming functional. At take . Convexity of the norm gives . Since , sum these inequalities to get . Therefore . Combining the two bounds yields the sharp Rademacher second-moment inequalityNo smoothness of the norm is required. The constant is sharp: two equal nonzero real coefficients give modulus or with equal probabilities. This is the second-versus-first moment case of the Kahane-Khintchine inequality for arbitrary normed vector spaces.
For the complex-circle assertion, write each independent Steinhaus random variable as , where is uniform on and all quadrant signs are independent. Conditional on the angles, is a Rademacher sum with complex coefficients and . Its conditional second moment is , independent of the angles. The preceding inequality gives its conditional first moment at least . Average over the angles and square to obtain the Steinhaus first-moment lower bound
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 106 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Invertibility is stable under sufficiently small perturbations, and inversion is continuous. Let be the identity of the complex unital Banach algebra , with its submultiplicative algebra norm. For , completeness makes the Neumann seriesconverge in . Multiplying either side of the partial sums by gives , which tends to , proving that the sum is a two-sided inverse.
Fix , the group of invertible elements of a Banach algebra. If , thenso the Neumann series makes invertible. This proves that is open. It also gives a local boundWe retain here so the estimate does not silently assume a normalized identity. The inverse identitythen impliesThis proves continuity of inversion in a Banach algebra.
For a unital Banach algebra, the spectrum of an element isFor a nonunital Banach algebra, use its unitization of an algebra with multiplication and normIt is a unital Banach algebra, with identity , and define . In this nonunital convention, belongs to the spectrum: the scalar coordinate of is zero, so it cannot be invertible in .
The spectrum is nonempty and compact. It suffices to work in a nonzero unital Banach algebra, since unitization reduces the other case to this one. The group of invertible elements of a Banach algebra is open, so the complement of the spectrum of an element is open. For , the Neumann series givesThus is closed and lies in , hence is compact.
For nonemptiness of the Banach-algebra spectrum, suppose that were defined on all of . At any , factoring gives a locally convergent power seriesFor every bounded linear functional , the scalar function is therefore entire. The bound at infinity makes it bounded outside a disk, while continuity makes it bounded on the disk. By the Liouville theorem, it is constant; since it tends to zero at infinity, it is identically zero. The version of the Hahn-Banach theorem used here says that bounded linear functionals separate points of a normed vector space: if , there is with . Consequently for every , contradicting . This proves the assertion.
Every nonzero complex unital normed division algebra is algebraically and topologically isomorphic to . This is the Gelfand-Mazur theorem; completeness is not needed in its statement. Let be a normed division algebra, and take its completion of a normed space using the algebra norm to obtain a unital Banach algebra . Submultiplicativity extends multiplication continuously to the completion, and the original identity remains its identity.
For , the spectrum of an element of in contains some . If in , the division-algebra assumption supplies an inverse in , which is still an inverse in . This contradicts . Therefore . The map is a bijective complex algebra homomorphism, andIt and its inverse are continuous; when , it is an isometry.
A complete algebra norm on a function algebra dominates the supremum norm, even before continuity of point evaluations is known. Let be the given algebra of functions. Form the same artificial unitization even if already has an identity. For each , the algebraic mapis a unital multiplicative complex linear functional. No continuity has been assumed. Since , the element cannot be invertible: applying to an inverse equation would give . Hence , and the spectrum bound already proved yieldsTaking the supremum proves the supremum bound for a complete function-algebra norm:In particular every is bounded, and every point evaluation is a bounded linear functional of norm at most . This is an instance of automatic continuity of characters: a character of an algebra on a Banach algebra is bounded because its value at any element belongs to that element's spectrum.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 106 5 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the canonical embedding into the bidual . It is an isometry by the Hahn-Banach theorem. The weak-star topology , restricted to , is exactly the weak topology : both are determined by the same scalar evaluations . Therefore if is a weakly compact set, is compact in the Hausdorff weak-star topology of , and hence is closed for the weak-star topology. This explains the first assertion without treating the whole embedded space as weak-star closed.
For a bounded linear operator , its Banach-space adjoint isFor each , the scalar evaluation is weak-star continuous on . These are exactly the defining evaluations of the weak-star topology on , so is weak-star-to-weak-star continuous. Equivalently, if , then for every .
The Goldstine theorem states that is dense in for , where the balls are closed unit balls. The Banach-Alaoglu theorem states that for any normed vector space , the closed dual unit ball is compact for . Neither assertion claims norm compactness or, in general, sequential compactness.
For the weakly compact operator equivalences below, identify and with their canonical images only when stated. In particular, the range condition means . We shall prove , . The key identities, obtained by evaluating on , are
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 106 5 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Weak compactness of the adjoint forces weak compactness of the original operator. Assume is weakly compact. Apply the already proved to this operator, rather than assuming the adjoint equivalence in advance. It givesTake annihilating , so for every . Write for some . For every ,Hence and . It follows thatfor every annihilating .
The vector subspace is closed in the norm topology in because is complete and is an isometry. The Hahn-Banach theorem says that any point outside a closed linear subspace can be separated from it by a bounded linear functional vanishing on that subspace. Applying this in shows that an element annihilated by all such must belong to . Therefore for every , proving . The reverse implications above now establish all four equivalences, including weak compactness of an operator and its adjoint:
Finally, if is a reflexive Banach space, every is for some , and . If is a reflexive Banach space, , so the same range condition holds automatically. In either case, proves
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 106 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The Hahn-Banach theorem for bounded linear functionals says that a bounded linear functional on any linear subspace of a normed vector space extends to the whole space with its norm unchanged. No closedness or completeness of the subspace is required. Question 1 uses real-valued , so its operator assertions are read over the real scalar field. The analogous complex statements use complex-valued indexed functions.
For , define on its one-dimensional span. This is a norm-one functional, so Hahn-Banach theorem supplies an extension withThe canonical embedding into the bidual is . It is linear and . The bounded linear functional just constructed gives the reverse inequality for nonzero , and the zero case is immediate. Thus and is injective.
For the coordinate functional representation of an operator into bounded indexed functions, let evaluate a coordinate and put . If is bounded and linear, then and . Conversely, if , the formula defines a bounded scalar function for each , is linear, and satisfies . Combining the two estimates givesFor an empty index set both spaces/families have norm bound zero; the supremum of the empty nonnegative family is taken as zero.
Choose and . The Hahn-Banach theorem makes , so this is a linear isometric embedding into bounded scalar functions on an index set.
If is nonzero and separable, choose a dense sequence in its unit sphere and supporting functionals with . For a unit vector and , some satisfies , whence . Thus is a countable norming family and is an isometry into the l-infinity sequence space. Completeness of is not needed.
If instead for a separable normed vector space , choose a dense sequence in . The evaluations lie in and continuity of gives . This again gives , even when is not separable. If , use zero coordinates throughout.
To prove 1-injectivity, take on a subspace of . Extend every coordinate to by Hahn-Banach theorem, keeping its norm. Their uniform bound defines , and the coordinate norm identity yieldsSelection of these extensions uses the usual choice convention for arbitrary index sets. This verifies the lambda-injective normed space definition with .
For the final retraction characterization of lambda-injectivity, suppose first that is lambda-injective and is a linear isometry. The inverse has norm one when ; extend it to with . Then , and is a bounded projection onto . For the zero space take .
Conversely, suppose every linear isometry out of has such a left inverse. Fix an isometry as above and a left inverse with . For any , extend to by 1-injectivity. Then extends , and . Therefore is lambda-injective exactly when every isometric embedding admits a bounded map satisfying