Past exam of the functional analysis I course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / 2 / a

For a normed space $X$, let $X^{\ast }$ be its continuous dual space and $X^{\ast \ast }=(X^{\ast }{)}^{\ast }$ its bidual space. Its canonical embedding into the bidual isThe definition of a reflexive space in this setting isThe Hahn-Banach theorem makes $J_X$ a linear map that is an isometry. For any normed space $Z$, its continuous dual space is a Banach space: a Cauchy sequence $({\ell }_n)$ in the operator norm has scalar limits $\ell (z)={\lim }_n{\ell }_n(z)$, and the uniform Cauchy bound proves both boundedness of $\ell$ and $\Vert {\ell }_n-\ell \Vert \to 0$. Apply this with $Z=X^{\ast }$ to see that $X^{\ast \ast }$ is complete. If $J_X$ is onto, the isometry transfers this completeness to $X$. Therefore

The answer isIndeed, Lebesgue measure on $E\subset {\mathbb{R}}^n$ is a sigma-finite measure, and duality of Lp spaces gives $(L^1(E){)}^{\ast }=L^{\infty }(E)$. The restricted Lebesgue measure is a non-atomic measure and $E$ has positive measure, so the Dual of L infinity is larger than L1: the canonical integral representation does not exhaust $(L^{\infty }(E){)}^{\ast }$.

For $1<p<\infty$, the Holder conjugate exponent also lies strictly between one and infinity. Duality of Lp spaces then holds in both directions, in agreement with Reflexivity of Lp spaces. For $p=\infty$, the first required identification already fails.