The weak-star topology is generated by the seminorms , . Thus every evaluation is continuous, so implies for each . Conversely, a basic neighborhood of imposes finitely many conditions . Pointwise convergence eventually satisfies all of them simultaneously. Hence
The Uniform boundedness principle, applied on the Banach space , gives . If in the norm topology, then
Therefore . Completeness of is used in this uniform boundedness step.
If is norm compact, the identity map from to is a continuous bijection. The target is Hausdorff, since distinct functionals differ at some . The compact-to-Hausdorff continuous bijection theorem gives
The Banach-Alaoglu theorem states that the closed dual unit ball is compact in the weak-star topology; in fact need only be a normed vector space. To prove it, work over or and form
Each is compact, so is compact by the Tychonoff theorem. Embed by . Its image consists exactly of those families satisfying
These are closed conditions in the product topology. Conversely, any family satisfying them defines a linear functional bounded by , hence an element of . The image is therefore closed and compact. The induced product topology is precisely the weak-star topology, proving the theorem. This is a compactness proof for arbitrary nets, with no separability assumption.
For the dual map of bounded linear operator , each satisfies
Evaluation at the fixed vector is weak-star continuous, so .
Suppose is a compact operator. By the allowed Schauder theorem for compact operators, is compact. If is bounded, the norm closure is norm compact. We already proved that its norm and weak-star topologies coincide. The weak-star continuous map into is consequently norm continuous. Conversely, if is weak-star-to-norm continuous on bounded subsets, its restriction to maps a weak-star compact set, by Banach-Alaoglu theorem, to a norm compact set. Thus is a compact operator, and the Schauder theorem for compact operators gives
The Mazur theorem states that the weak closure and norm closure of a convex set in a normed vector space coincide:
Norm closure is contained in weak closure because the weak topology is coarser. Conversely, if , the Hahn-Banach separation theorem provides a continuous real linear functional strictly separating from that closed convex set. In a complex space this is the real part of a continuous complex linear functional. A weak neighborhood of then misses , so . This proves the equality. It also gives the usual Mazur lemma: if , then lies in the norm closure of the convex hull of each tail, so one can choose tail convex combinations with .
Now let be a weakly compact set in a normed space . Each is bounded on because it is weakly continuous. The family in , where is the canonical embedding into the bidual, is therefore pointwise bounded. The space is Banach even if is not. Apply the Uniform boundedness principle and use to obtain
This proves that a weakly compact set is norm bounded without assuming completeness of the original space.
For the real-valued dual and integral formulas that follow, take to be real, as in the PDF. In a complex space the norming formula uses real parts, and the integral identities use complex-valued functionals instead.
If the separable Banach space is nonzero, choose a norm-dense sequence in its unit sphere. By the Hahn-Banach theorem, choose with and . For any unit vector , arbitrarily close satisfy
Scaling gives the countable norming family identity
For use the constant sequence of zero functionals. If is norm-Borel measurable, every is measurable, so its countable supremum is measurable. Equivalently, this also follows directly from continuity of the norm.
For any , continuity makes measurable, and
Thus the assumed integrability of the norm implies scalar integrability, and
defines a bounded linear functional on . Use the granted weak-star continuity of . By the continuous dual of a weak-star topology, is evaluation at a vector of . Indeed, continuity gives finitely many and such that whenever for all . Scaling shows that vanishes on the common kernel of these evaluations. It therefore factors through their finite-dimensional coordinate map, so . The Hahn-Banach theorem makes this representing vector unique. Hence
In this separable setting the vector is the Bochner integral.
Return to a weakly compact set and its inclusion . For each fixed , the identity makes weakly Borel measurable. Norm balls are consequently weakly Borel measurable. Separability gives a countable base of such balls, so every norm-open set is weakly Borel measurable. This proves measurability of , and establishes the equality of the weak and norm Borel sigma-algebras in a separable Banach space.
Put . For every finite signed Borel measure on ,
For positive measures this is the integral in the question. For signed measures, the correct integrability condition uses the variation measure; define the integral by taking the difference of the positive and negative integrals. The printed in this clause should be , the domain of the inclusion.
The Riesz-Markov-Kakutani representation theorem now defines the bounded linear map
For each the restriction is in , and
The right side is weak-star continuous in . The defining property of the weak topology therefore proves that is weak-star-to-weak continuous, for arbitrary nets. For a Dirac measure, .
If , let be its regular probability measures. This is a weak-star closed subset of : its conditions are and for every nonnegative . It is compact by Banach-Alaoglu theorem. Thus is weakly compact and convex, and contains because it contains all . It is weakly closed, hence norm closed, so it contains . By Mazur theorem, is weakly closed. Therefore it is a closed subset of the weakly compact set , proving
The empty case is immediate. In fact : a barycenter of a measure on a Banach space outside would be strictly separated by a functional , contradicting .
Choose a countable dense subset of the normed vector space . For each fixed , the scalar sequence is bounded because
Repeated use of the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem followed by a diagonal subsequence argument produces a subsequence for which converges for every .
Let be the linear span of the . On every , define
Finite linear combinations show that is linear, and passage to the limit in gives . Thus is a bounded linear functional on the dense linear subspace and extends uniquely to an element of the dual space with .
For arbitrary and ,
First choose close to , then let tend to infinity. This proves
This is the Sequential Banach-Alaoglu theorem for a separable predual.
The Uniform boundedness principle states that if is a Banach space and a family of bounded linear operators is pointwise bounded, then .
Suppose in the normed vector space . For each , define the evaluation functional
The completeness of the dual space says that is Banach even when is not. For each , the scalar sequence converges to and is therefore bounded. Uniform boundedness gives
By the canonical embedding into the bidual and the Hahn-Banach theorem, . Hence
which proves that a weakly convergent sequence is bounded.
The continuous dual space of a real normed vector space is
with the operator norm
Two normed spaces are isometrically isomorphic when there is a bijective linear map between them that preserves norms.
For , define
The series is absolutely convergent and
so 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 gives
The representing sequence is unique, and the construction is linear and norm preserving. Thus the duality of l1 and l infinity proves
A family is equicontinuous if for every and there is a neighborhood of such that
for every and every . The Arzelà-Ascoli theorem says that, for a compact Hausdorff space , a subset of has compact closure in the uniform norm if and only if it is equicontinuous and pointwise bounded. On compact , equicontinuity and pointwise boundedness together imply uniform boundedness.
For necessity, a compact closure is totally bounded. Given , choose a finite -net . The finitely many continuous functions are simultaneously continuous near each point, and comparison with a nearby proves equicontinuity of the whole family. Evaluation at any fixed point is a continuous map or , so compactness also gives pointwise boundedness.
Conversely, equicontinuity gives, around each , a neighborhood on which every oscillates by less than . Compactness supplies a finite such cover with selected points . Pointwise boundedness makes the set of vectors
a bounded subset of a finite-dimensional normed vector space, so it has a finite -net. Choose one function of for every nonempty cell of this net. If two functions have evaluation vectors in the same cell, then comparison at a selected and the two oscillation bounds show that their uniform distance is less than . Thus is totally bounded. Since is a Banach space, its closure is complete; a complete totally bounded metric space is compact, proving the theorem.
Goldstine theorem states that the canonical image of the closed unit ball of a normed vector space is weak-star dense in .
The Banach-Alaoglu theorem states that is compact in the weak-star topology. To prove it, map each to its values in
Every factor is compact, so Tychonoff theorem makes compact. The image of is cut out by the closed linearity conditions
and is therefore closed in . The product topology restricted to this image is exactly pointwise convergence on , namely the weak-star topology. Hence the ball is compact.
Rademacher sum Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
For in a normed vector space, define and use the displayed formula elsewhere. This continuous map fixes the closed ball of radius and maps every point outside it to the boundary along its radial line. If a continuous map is defined only on that closed ball, is a continuous extension to the whole space. This extension is useful when applying a theorem whose hypotheses concern a globally defined vector field.
Radon-Riesz property Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
A normed vector space has the Radon-Riesz property when weak convergence together with implies strong convergence . The Hilbert-space case is the Radon-Riesz theorem. The condition prevents norm from remaining in weakly invisible directions.
In a metric space, applying the triangle inequality in both directions gives . In a normed vector space, its corresponding form is . In particular, distance to a fixed point is a Lipschitz continuous real function.
If the continuous dual space of a normed vector space is norm separable, then is separable. Choose a dense sequence in the dual unit ball and unit-ball points with . If their closed linear span were proper, the Hahn-Banach distance formula would give a norm-one functional vanishing on it. An within of would simultaneously satisfy and , a contradiction. Rational linear combinations give a countable dense subset of .
The converse fails by duality of l1 and l infinity: is separable, whereas contains uncountably many zero-one sequences at mutual distance one.
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.
If a normed vector space is separable, every bounded sequence in has a subsequence that converges pointwise on . Equivalently, the closed unit ball of is sequentially compact in the weak-star topology. A diagonal subsequence argument on a countable dense subset proves the result.
In a normed vector space, this set consists of all points at a fixed positive norm distance from . It also makes sense in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, unlike a specifically Euclidean sphere. In a real Hilbert space, the sphere in a normed vector space has tangent variations satisfying ; this follows by differentiating the fixed squared norm. This is the geometric constraint used in fixed-energy initial-condition optimality.
A normed vector space is strictly convex when distinct unit vectors have their midpoint strictly inside the unit ball. The Lp space is strictly convex for : strict convexity of gives a strict integrated midpoint inequality for distinct unit functions. The endpoint spaces and need not have this property.
Topological vector space Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A topological vector space is a vector space over or , equipped with a topology such that vector addition and scalar multiplication are jointly continuous:
The domains carry the product topology, and the scalar field carries its usual topology. Joint continuity permits both inputs to vary at once. Here the definition does not impose the Hausdorff condition; we state it separately when needed. [ref].
Every normed vector space is a topological vector space: the triangle inequality gives , while
controls scalar multiplication near any . More generally, a seminorm topology supplies many measurements of smallness, rather than one norm. Translation by any vector is a homeomorphism, so a neighbourhood basis at zero determines all neighbourhoods by translation.
The compatibility matters: on a nonzero real vector space, the discrete topology makes vector addition continuous, but not scalar multiplication. For , the sequence of scalars tends to zero, whereas the sequence never enters the open set . Thus choosing a topology arbitrarily need not respect the linear algebra.
This framework lets functional analysis choose the appropriate notion of limit of a sequence. Norm topology measures one global error, weak topology tests linear functionals, and the Fréchet space of smooth functions controls every order of derivative. In each case the operations forming linear combinations are continuous, making approximation compatible with the underlying equations.
Uniformly convex space 2026-10-14
A normed vector space is uniformly convex if, for each , there is such that unit-ball vectors with satisfy . Completeness is not part of this definition; a complete example is a uniformly convex Banach space.
Unit ball Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
The unit ball of a normed vector space is under the closed-ball convention.
Unit vector Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A unit vector is a vector of norm one in a normed vector space. For a nonzero vector , vector normalization produces one by dividing by . In a real Euclidean space, this keeps the direction and removes the magnitude. The zero vector cannot be normalized because its norm is zero.
For with Euclidean norm , the corresponding unit vector is
The Euclidean vector can therefore be reconstructed as : size and direction are distinct pieces of information. The standard basis vectors are familiar unit vectors, but a unit vector need not point along a coordinate axis.
Figure 1.
Normalization keeps direction and places the endpoint on the unit circle
. The original Euclidean vector has magnitude . Its vector normalization lies on the unit circle. The enlarged right panel also shows its negative, which has the same Euclidean norm and the opposite direction. Details.