Past exam of the functional Analysis and Banach and C*-Algebras course of the University of Oxford / 2010 / A / 2 / iv / Solution

Define a diagonal operator on sequence space byIt is bounded because $\Vert Sx{\Vert }_2^2\le \Vert x{\Vert }_{\infty }^2{\sum }_{n\ge 1}{4}^{-n}=\Vert x{\Vert }_{\infty }^2/3$. Its truncation $S_{m}x=(2^{-1}{x}_1,\dots ,2^{-m}{x}_m,0,\dots )$ is a finite-rank operator, andEquality follows by using finitely supported sequences equal to $1$ on longer and longer finite tails. An operator norm limit of compact operators into the Banach space ${\ell }_2$ is compact; therefore $S$ is a compact operator. The vectors $S{e}_n=2^{-n}{e}_n$ are linearly independent, so its rank is infinite.

There is no conflict with the preceding result about a compact closed-ball image. Indeed, take $x^{(m)}=(1,\dots ,1,0,\dots )$ with $m$ initial ones. Then $S{x}^{(m)}\to (2^{-n}{)}_{n\ge 1}$ in ${\ell }_2$, but that limit has no preimage in $c_0$: its only possible preimage is the constant sequence $1$. Thus $S(B_{c_0})$ is relatively compact but is not closed and hence is not compact.