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Suppose a linear map $S:c_0\to Y$ has compact image of the closed unit ball. It is bounded, and each $g\in Y^{\ast }$ attains its maximum on this compact image. Thus $S^{\ast }g$ attains its norm, so norm attainment on the vanishing sequence space implies $S^{\ast }(Y^{\ast })\subseteq c_{00}$. The Baire category theorem applied to the inverse images of the first $n$ coordinate spans makes this adjoint finite rank: these are closed linear subspaces covering the complete continuous dual space $Y^{\ast }$, so one has interior and is all of $Y^{\ast }$. Finally the Hahn-Banach theorem identifies $\ker S$ as the common kernel of $S^{\ast }(Y^{\ast })$, proving finite rank of $S$. Ordinary compact operators require only relative compactness of the ball image, so they need not have finite rank.

The compact set $S(B_{c_0})$ is bounded, so $S$ is a bounded linear operator. For each $g\in Y^{\ast }$, the continuous linear functional $g$ attains its maximum on that compact set. Symmetry of $S(B_{c_0})$ implies that maximum is $\Vert S^{\ast }g\Vert$, so $S^{\ast }g$ attains its norm on $B_{c_0}$. By norm attainment on the vanishing sequence space,Regard the Banach-space adjoint $S^{\ast }$ as a bounded linear operator from the Banach space $Y^{\ast }$ into $c_{00}$ with its inherited ${\ell }_1$ norm. The completeness of the dual space holds even if $Y$ is incomplete. The preceding Baire category theorem argument shows that $S^{\ast }$ has finite rank.

If $S^{\ast }(Y^{\ast })=\mathrm{span}\{f_1,\dots ,f_r\}$, set $N={\bigcap }_{j=1}^r\ker f_j$. For $x\in N$ and every $g\in Y^{\ast }$, $g(Sx)=(S^{\ast }g)(x)=0$. The Hahn-Banach theorem implies that continuous linear functionals separate points of $Y$, so $Sx=0$. Thus $N\subseteq \ker S$, andThis proves compact closed-ball image forces finite rank on c0.

Under duality of sequence spaces, $a=(a_n)\in {\ell }_1$ represents $f_a(x)=\sum a_n{x}_n$ on $c_0$, with operator norm $\Vert f_a\Vert =\sum |a_n|$. Here $c_0$ is the space of sequences converging to zero, equipped with its supremum norm.

If $\Vert x{\Vert }_{\infty }\le 1$ and $f_a(x)=\sum |a_n|$, thenEvery summand is nonnegative, so $x_n=\mathrm{sgn}(a_n)$ whenever $a_n\ne 0$. Infinitely many such coordinates would give infinitely many $|x_n|=1$, contradicting $x_n\to 0$. Therefore $a$ has finite support.

Conversely, if $a$ has finite support, choose $x_n=\mathrm{sgn}(a_n)$ on that support and $x_n=0$ elsewhere. Then $x\in c_0$, $\Vert x{\Vert }_{\infty }\le 1$, and $f_a(x)=\Vert f_a\Vert$. The zero functional is included by taking $x=0$. ThusThis is norm attainment on the vanishing sequence space.