Compact norming dual-pair criterion Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-11-05
Let be a Banach space and let be a linear subspace of that separates points, with the inherited operator norm. If the closed unit ball is compact for , then the evaluation map is an isometric isomorphism of normed spaces.
For a unit-ball element , the Hahn-Banach theorem extends to an element of of norm at most one. Goldstine theorem approximates that extension weak-star by elements of . Restricting the pairings to shows that is weak-star dense in . The assumed compactness also makes weak-star compact and hence closed, so .
Separation makes injective. Equality of the two unit balls makes it surjective and norm preserving: a smaller image norm could otherwise place a vector outside in the image of . This proves the claimed dual representation without assuming in advance that is norming.
Duality of l1 and l infinity Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-31
For , the formula defines a bounded functional on with . Conversely, every is represented this way by the bounded sequence . This is an isometric isomorphism of normed spaces.
Define by . This is a linear bijection, with inverse , andThus is an isometric isomorphism of normed spaces onto the absolutely summable sequence space, which is a Banach space. Explicitly, a Cauchy sequence maps to a Cauchy sequence ; setting gives convergence in the weighted norm. Hence is a Banach space, an instance of weighted summable sequence space isometry.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 6 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let . Form the evaluation map into a product spaceThe cube is compact by Tychonoff's theorem and Hausdorff, so its closed subspace is a compact Hausdorff space. A completely regular Hausdorff space has enough continuous functions to separate points and closed sets. Consequently is injective and continuous, and is a topological embedding: given open, choose with and off ; the coordinate neighborhood pulls back to a neighborhood of inside . Identify with this dense embedded subspace. This constructs the Stone-Čech compactification.
Each extends as its coordinate function. Rescaling therefore extends every bounded real continuous function; real and imaginary parts extend bounded complex continuous functions. The extension is unique because is dense and the target is Hausdorff. Its supremum norm is unchanged by density, so restriction is an isometric isomorphism of normed spaces of Banach spacesThese are the space of continuous functions on a compact space and the space of bounded continuous functions, respectively.
More generally, embed a compact Hausdorff space in its own evaluation cube . This is an embedding by complete regularity, and its image is closed by compactness. For a continuous map , extend all the bounded coordinates to . The resulting continuous map into the cube takes its values in the closed copy of : it does so on the dense subset , and the inverse image of that closed copy is closed. ThusUniqueness again follows from density. This is the universal property of the Stone-Čech compactification. It implies uniqueness of the compactification up to a homeomorphism fixing , by extending the identity in both directions. Every Hausdorff compactification of is the image of under a continuous surjection fixing , since that image is compact and contains the dense copy of . A continuous map between completely regular Hausdorff spaces likewise extends uniquely to after composing with the embedding of ; these extensions preserve identities and composition. If is already compact, its dense copy is closed, so .
For discrete , every indicator , , is continuous. Its extension to takes only values , since this closed condition holds on the dense subset . Its one-set is precisely and is clopen: it is closed, and every neighborhood of one of its points meets by density and continuity. This also gives the discrete Stone-Čech compactifications are extremally disconnected property: for open , density implies , which is clopen.
For the requested separation, a compact Hausdorff space is normal, so Urysohn's lemma supplies with on and on . Put andThe preceding indicator argument makes both sets clopen. At a point of , the neighborhood has its dense -part inside , so the point lies in . At a point of , the neighborhood misses , so the point lies outside . We have proved the stronger clopen separation in discrete Stone-Čech compactifications conclusion
Finally take , the Stone-Čech compactification of the natural numbers. It is a compact Hausdorff space and is separable, because its embedded copy of is countable and dense. For every , the indicator extends to an element . For distinct , evaluating at an integer in their symmetric difference gives . There are uncountably many such indicators. A separable metric space cannot contain an uncountable family at pairwise distance one: disjoint balls of radius would require distinct members of a countable dense set. Hence is not separable, despite separability of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ii Paper 2 22H b Solution 2026-10-14
Suppose converges uniformly to . Choose with , then a tail on which . On this tail , proving . Linearity is coordinatewise, so is a closed subspace.
For , define the bounded linear functional . Absolute convergence gives . For each , take when and , and zero elsewhere. This finitely supported sequence belongs to and has norm at most one, giving . Therefore .
Conversely, for put . The same finite phase vectors give , so . The finite truncations of every converge in the supremum norm, hence continuity gives . This proves the surjective isometric isomorphism of normed spaces .
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 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 2020 ii Paper 1 22I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
The continuous dual space of a real normed vector space iswith the operator normTwo normed spaces are isometrically isomorphic when there is a bijective linear map between them that preserves norms.
For , defineThe series is absolutely convergent andso and . For every , choose with and test on . This gives the reverse inequality, hence
Conversely, given , set . Then , so . For , its finite partial sums converge to in norm; continuity of therefore givesThe representing sequence is unique, and the construction is linear and norm preserving. Thus the duality of l1 and l infinity proves