Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2001 / iii / Paper 6 / 4

The weak topology $\sigma (E,E^{\ast })$ is the coarsest topology making every continuous linear functional in $E^{\ast }$ continuous. A basic neighborhood of $x$ imposes finitely many inequalities $|f_j(z-x)|<\epsilon$, and a sequence converges weakly precisely when each $f(x_n)$ converges to $f(x)$. The Hahn-Banach theorem makes the dual separate points, so the weak topology is Hausdorff.

Here is a proof of the requested weak subsequence property, the compact-to-sequential direction of the Eberlein-Šmulian theorem. Let $Y$ be the closed linear span of the countable set $\{x_n:n\ge 1\}$. It is a separable Banach space. The Hahn-Banach theorem separates points outside a closed vector subspace from that subspace, so $Y$ is weakly closed in $E$. Therefore $C=K\cap Y$ is weakly compact.

Choose a countable dense set $(u_j)$ in the unit sphere of $Y$, and choose norming functionals $f_j\in Y^{\ast }$ with $\Vert f_j\Vert =1$ and $f_j(u_j)=1$. They separate points: for $y\ne 0$, a sufficiently close $u_j$ to $y/\Vert y\Vert$ gives $|f_j(y)|>0$. This is a countable norming family. Extend the functionals to $E$ by the Hahn-Banach theorem. The evaluation mapis weakly continuous and injective. Its domain is compact and its target Hausdorff, so it is a homeomorphism onto its image: images of closed subsets are compact, hence closed. A countable product of real or complex lines is metrizable, for example by ${\sum }_j{2}^{-j}\min (1,|a_j-b_j|)$. Thus $C$ has a compact metrizable weak topology. Compact metric spaces are sequentially compact, giving a subsequence with $\boxed{x_{n_j}\rightharpoonup x\in C\subseteq K}$. If $Y=\{0\}$ the result is immediate. We did not assert that a separable Banach space has a separable dual or that its weak topology is generally metrizable.

Assume weakly null sequences have norm-null images. Let $(y_n)$ be any sequence in $T(K)$, where $K$ is weakly compact, and choose $x_n\in K$ with $y_n=T{x}_n$. By the weak subsequence result, some $x_{n_j}\rightharpoonup x\in K$. Then $x_{n_j}-x\rightharpoonup 0$, and the assumed property givesThus every sequence in $T(K)$ has a norm-convergent subsequence with limit in $T(K)$. In a metric space, sequential compactness is equivalent to compactness. Therefore $\boxed{T(K)\text{ is norm compact}}$. This is one characterization of a completely continuous operator.

Assume instead that $T$ sends weakly compact sets to norm-compact sets. If $x_n\rightharpoonup 0$, then $K=\{0,x_1,x_2,\dots \}$ is weakly compact: an open cover has a member containing zero, which contains all but finitely many terms of the convergent sequence. Hence $T(K)$ is norm compact. A bounded linear operator is weak-to-weak continuous, because each $g\in F^{\ast }$ pulls back to $g\circ T\in E^{\ast }$. Thus $T{x}_n\rightharpoonup 0$. If $\Vert T{x}_n\Vert$ did not tend to zero, a subsequence with norms bounded below by some $\epsilon >0$ would have a norm-convergent further subsequence with limit $y$. That further subsequence also converges weakly to both $y$ and zero; uniqueness of limits in the Hausdorff weak topology forces $y=0$, contradicting the lower bound. Therefore $\boxed{\Vert T{x}_n\Vert \to 0}$, proving the equivalence and the characterization of completely continuous operators.

Now consider the inclusion of the space of continuous functions on a compact space $C(\mathbb{T})$ into L2 space for normalized Lebesgue measure. It is a bounded linear operator, since $\Vert f{\Vert }_2\le \Vert f{\Vert }_{\infty }$. For a weakly null sequence $(f_n)$ in $C(\mathbb{T})$, point evaluations are continuous linear functionals, so $f_n(t)\to 0$ for every $t$. The Uniform boundedness principle, applied to the canonical embeddings $f_n\in C(\mathbb{T}{)}^{\ast \ast }$, gives a uniform bound $\Vert f_n{\Vert }_{\infty }\le M$: each dual functional is bounded on the weakly convergent sequence. The dominated convergence theorem now yieldsThus $j_2$ satisfies both equivalent conditions.

It is nevertheless not a compact operator. Over complex scalars the functions $f_n(t)=e^{int}$ lie in the unit ball of $C(\mathbb{T})$ and form an orthonormal sequence in $L^2(\mu )$, soThere is no norm-convergent subsequence. Over real scalars use $\cos (nt)$, whose distinct images have distance $1$. Complete continuity controls weakly compact sets, rather than all bounded sets.