For a nonempty radially open convex set disjoint from a vector subspace , there is a nonzero linear functional whose kernel of a linear map contains and avoids . Choose and the Minkowski functional of . On , set . Disjointness implies , which gives for negative ; nonnegativity of gives it for nonnegative . The algebraic Hahn-Banach theorem extends to . For , , so . Also and .
Locally convex space Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A locally convex space is a topological vector space with a neighbourhood basis at zero consisting of convex sets. Equivalently, its topology is a seminorm topology generated by some family of seminorms. We allow non-Hausdorff spaces here; a separating family of seminorms gives precisely the Hausdorff case. Every normed vector space is locally convex, but smooth convergence generally requires a whole family of measurements.
The geometric and measurement descriptions fit together: seminorm sublevel sets are convex, while the Minkowski functional of an open, convex zero neighbourhood invariant under all scalar multiplications with is a continuous seminorm. Such neighbourhoods can be chosen as a neighbourhood basis. [ref].
Local convexity makes Hahn-Banach theorem and separation of a point and an open convex set available. It turns geometric distinctions into continuous linear functionals, connecting convex sets to the continuous dual space. For a seminorm topology generated by , a linear functional is continuous exactly when there are and with
Thus one continuous linear functional needs only finitely many of the available measurements. For example, point evaluation of a derivative on the space of smooth functions on a compact interval is controlled by a suitable derivative seminorm.
Suppose contains zero, is convex, and meets every line , , in the finite symmetric open segment with . Then its Minkowski functional is a norm, with and . Absolute homogeneity follows by rescaling the segment. If and , convexity puts in , giving ; passing to the infima proves the triangle inequality. Conversely the open unit ball uniquely determines any norm by the displayed formula. No prior topology on the vector space is needed for these radial hypotheses.
For a bounded convex open set containing zero and invariant under , its Minkowski functional is a norm. Inner and outer Euclidean balls give positive finite bounds; symmetry and scaling give absolute homogeneity; convexity gives the triangle inequality. Openness makes , while boundedness prevents nonzero vectors from having zero gauge.
A norm is nonnegative with exactly when , satisfies , and obeys . The Euclidean norm has positivity and absolute homogeneity immediately. For the triangle inequality, positivity of for all real gives the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality (with immediate). Hence
which proves the triangle inequality after taking square roots.
For the prescribed set, use the Minkowski functional
Since is open and contains zero, some Euclidean ball of radius lies inside it. Since it is bounded, it lies inside a ball of radius . These inclusions imply , so the functional is finite and positive for nonzero ; it is zero at zero. Symmetry gives , and substitution in the infimum gives for , hence absolute homogeneity for all real scalars.
Convexity and imply for . Consequently, for and , one has . Convexity then gives
so . Letting and proves the triangle inequality.
Finally, if , there is a with . Conversely, if and , openness permits for some , so ; zero is immediate. Thus , completing the norm from a bounded symmetric convex neighbourhood construction.
Let be the Minkowski functional of :
The contained ball makes absorbing, so is finite, nonnegative and satisfies . It is positively homogeneous. To check subadditivity, if and , the defining property of a convex set gives , whence ; let decrease to the respective infima. Thus is a sublinear functional. We have for every . Also : otherwise for some , which would put in because is a convex set and .
We prove the dominated form of the Hahn-Banach theorem needed here. Suppose is linear on a subspace and there. To extend it to with , choose the value at between
Every lower candidate is at most every upper candidate, because
Taking among the candidates shows the two endpoints are finite: the lower supremum is at least and at most , and the upper infimum lies between them and . Define . For , the upper inequality applied to gives domination by . For , apply the lower inequality to and multiply by . At domination already holds. Hence this is a dominated one-dimensional extension.
Order all dominated extensions by inclusion of their domains. Chain unions preserve linearity and domination, so Zorn's lemma gives a maximal extension. The one-dimensional argument shows its domain is the whole vector space. This proves the requisite dominated Hahn-Banach theorem, rather than invoking an unproved separation form.
On the line , start with . For this equals ; for it is nonpositive and therefore at most . Extend it to on . Then
Applying domination to and also gives
Thus is a continuous linear functional, and
This proves separation from an absorbing convex set with no closedness assumption on . The proof also gives the norm-preserving real extension theorem used earlier: take when the original functional has norm at most .
We first prove the algebraic extension step needed for Hahn-Banach separation theorem. Suppose is a finite sublinear functional on a real vector space and is a linear functional on a vector subspace , with there. For , choose a real number between
This interval is nonempty: for any ,
Taking or also bounds the endpoints by finite numbers. Define . For , the upper bound for , applied to , proves . For , writing and using the lower bound at proves the same inequality. The case is the original domination. Thus a dominated linear functional extends over one further direction. Order all dominated extensions by extension of their domains. A chain has its union as an upper bound, so Zorn's lemma supplies a maximal extension. The one-direction argument shows its domain is the whole vector space. This proves the required algebraic Hahn-Banach theorem, rather than assuming the separation result.
Choose , and put . This is a radially open convex set containing zero. It is absorbing: along each line through zero, sufficiently small multiples of any vector lie in . Its Minkowski functional
is finite and nonnegative. Positive homogeneity follows by rescaling . If and , convexity gives , proving subadditivity by taking infima. Moreover,
Indeed, gives for some , hence by convexity and . Conversely, radial openness at permits for some , giving .
Since , and for every . Define a linear functional on by
It is well defined because . For , write ; then . For , domination follows from . The extension step therefore gives with , and . If , then
so . Consequently
Because , this kernel of a linear map has codimension one and is a hyperplane. This establishes the geometric Hahn-Banach theorem for radially open sets without assuming a norm or a topology on .
For the convex function, use its strict epigraph in . It is nonempty and convex, and does not contain . It is also radially open: on every affine line, a finite convex function is continuous. To justify this last fact, convexity orders secant slopes; on a smaller interval the slopes are bounded above and below by slopes to two fixed exterior endpoints, giving a local Lipschitz bound. Thus is continuous, and a strict negative value persists near .
Apply the separation theorem with the zero subspace. A nonzero separating linear functional has form . Its values on the convex epigraph cannot have both signs, since a line segment would then meet its kernel. Choose the sign so that on the epigraph. At and this gives . Letting decrease to yields . Therefore
The resulting linear functional need not be nonzero: for example, the zero functional is the only linear minorant of on .
Now suppose the norm and continuity hypotheses hold. Domination at and gives
If and in norm, apply this inequality to . Since and both bounding values tend to , we obtain . The kernel of a linear map is therefore closed.
Finally, a linear functional with closed kernel on a normed vector space is continuous. If , this is immediate. Otherwise choose with and put . Closedness gives . For , , so . The same resulting bound holds when :
This proves continuity and explains exactly how closedness of the kernel is used.
The interior of the diamond is . Its Minkowski functional, or the uniqueness argument already proved, gives the L1 norm:
The final unheaded set cannot be an open unit ball of a norm, because every norm ball is convex by homogeneity and the triangle inequality. Both and lie in : their squared-distance expression is . Their midpoint has that expression
so . Thus . The strict inequalities in the definition are respected by this explicit counterexample.
The unheaded preliminary requests are addressed before the first example. A norm is a function satisfying exactly for , , and . Its induced metric is . Translation preserves this distance, and scalar multiplication satisfies , so both are continuous; multiplication by zero is constant.
The open unit ball determines the norm uniquely through its Minkowski functional:
because is equivalent to . This also works for .
Under the given radial and convexity hypotheses, set and for . The finite symmetric segment along each line gives positivity, absolute homogeneity and . If and , then , and the stated convexity condition yields . Hence ; taking and proves the triangle inequality. Thus this is a norm determined by a convex radial unit ball. The case is immediate.
For the coordinate box, the Minkowski functional is the supremum norm:
Indeed exactly when .
The Hahn-Banach separation theorem for two convex sets states that disjoint nonempty convex sets in a real locally convex space, with open, admit a nonzero continuous linear functional and such that
There need not be a positive uniform gap between the two sets.
For a proof, set . It is open and convex, and . Choose , let , and let be the Minkowski functional of . Because is open, convex and contains zero, is a finite sublinear functional, and . Put . Since , . On define . For this equals ; for it is nonpositive and hence at most . The Hahn-Banach theorem extends it to a linear with . Both and are bounded near zero, so this domination makes continuous; it is nonzero because . For ,
Thus for every . Define , which is finite because any fixed bounds it above. Openness of and nonzeroness of ensure for every , and for every . This proves the stated separation.
For the sequence criterion, suppose and . If each , then
Conversely, the assumed inequality implies that every convex combination of the has norm at least . Hence is disjoint from . Apply the separation theorem with the open set to obtain and
Then has norm one and satisfies for every . Therefore
The PDF confirms the “if and only if” that is garbled in the TeX transcription.
Let be the Minkowski functional of . Openness, convexity, and make sublinear, with for and . Define a linear functional on by . The real Hahn-Banach theorem extends it to with . Hence
Apply this separation to the open ball of radius and rescale to obtain with . For a closed subspace , apply it to
The separator must vanish on because contains every translate along , and normalization gives
Let be finite-dimensional and . Consider
If did not belong to , finite-dimensional strict separation would produce some with
contradicting . Thus there is with and for every .
Given a basic weak-star neighbourhood of in , apply this result to the finite-dimensional span of its defining functionals and then replace by . As , the resulting points of enter that neighbourhood. Hence is weak-star dense in , proving Goldstine theorem.
The Hahn-Banach separation theorem for two convex sets states that if and are disjoint nonempty convex subsets of a real locally convex space and is open, then there are a continuous linear functional and a real number such that
To prove it, form
This is open and convex and does not contain zero. The separation of a point and an open convex set, proved from the Minkowski functional and the Hahn-Banach theorem, gives a nonzero continuous with for every . Hence for all . Taking between and gives the stated form.
For a dual pair , the topology has a neighbourhood base at zero consisting of
Every is continuous by definition. Conversely, if a linear functional is continuous, some such neighbourhood lies in . Therefore . Elementary linear algebra then gives . Thus
For a normed space , the weak topology is ; on the weak-star topology is , using the canonical image of in . If is reflexive, , so the weak and weak-star topologies on coincide. Conversely, if they coincide, every is weak-star continuous. The dual-pair result says that every such functional is evaluation at some , so is onto and is reflexive.
For , every and zero satisfy every inequality defining , so . The latter is an intersection of weakly closed convex half-spaces, hence contains
If , choose an open convex neighbourhood of zero with . Applying the separation theorem to and gives with
Because , the supremum is nonnegative. After multiplying by a positive scalar, on while . Thus but . We conclude with the Bipolar theorem for a dual pair:
For a real locally convex space , the continuous dual space consists of all continuous real-linear maps . If on a subspace , continuity gives seminorms and such that
The right side is a continuous sublinear functional on . The dominated Hahn-Banach theorem extends to a linear satisfying the same bound, so .
If is closed and , the Hausdorff locally convex quotient has a continuous seminorm with . On , define and rescale so that . Hahn--Banach extends it to with and .
The separation of a point and an open convex set says that if is nonempty, open, and convex and , there is such that
To prove it, choose , put , and let be its Minkowski functional. For , . Define on ; then . Hahn--Banach extends to . Since for , one has , proving the claim.
If is closed and convex and , a Hahn-Banach separation theorem gives and a real number separating from . The corresponding inverse image of an open interval is a weak neighbourhood of disjoint from , so is closed in .
The unit sphere of a normed space is norm closed. If is infinite-dimensional, every basic weak neighbourhood of an interior point constrains only finitely many functionals . Their common kernel contains a nonzero . Continuity of , together with its value below one at and divergence as , supplies with . Since all have the same values at and , every weak neighbourhood of meets . Points outside are separated from it by Hahn--Banach, so the weak closure of the unit sphere is exactly . In particular, is not weakly closed.
Radially open convex set 2026-10-14
A subset of a real vector space is radially open when, for each and each vector , the points remain in for all sufficiently small real . No ambient topology is required. If is also convex and contains zero, it is absorbing and its Minkowski functional is finite and sublinear, with . Convexity gives subadditivity; radial openness permits a slight dilation of any point of , giving the strict inequality.
If a convex set in a real normed vector space contains , every admits a continuous linear functional with for all , even if is not closed. Its Minkowski functional is sublinear functional, satisfies , , and . Extend by the dominated Hahn-Banach theorem. The resulting domination applied to and makes continuous and supplies the separation inequalities.
Separation of a point and an open convex set Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
If is a nonempty open convex subset of a real locally convex space and , a continuous linear functional strictly separates them: after choosing a sign, for every . Apply the Hahn-Banach theorem to the Minkowski functional of a translate of .