Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2005 / ii / Paper 2 / 22F (Linear Analysis)

A linear operator between Banach spaces is a compact operator when it maps the unit ball into a relatively compact set, equivalently when every bounded sequence of inputs has an image subsequence converging in norm. Such an operator is bounded. For a bounded linear operator on a complex Banach space, the resolvent set consists of the complex $\lambda$ for which $T-\lambda I$ is bijective with bounded inverse; its complement is the spectrum. The point spectrum consists of those $\lambda$ for which $T-\lambda I$ has a nonzero kernel, namely the eigenvalues.

On a Hilbert space, $T$ is self-adjoint if $T=T^{\ast }$, or equivalently $⟨Tx,y⟩=⟨x,Ty⟩$ for all vectors. The given prescription extends uniquely toIt is bounded with norm one. The real diagonal entries prove self-adjointness by the inner-product identity. Define the finite-rank truncation $T_{m}x={\sum }_{j\le m}{x}_j{e}_j/j$. Then $\Vert T-T_m\Vert =1/(m+1)\to 0$. To see compactness directly, extract successively convergent subsequences of the finitely many first coordinates from a bounded input sequence; the uniform tail bound just displayed makes the resulting image subsequence Cauchy. Hence $T$ is compact and self-adjoint.

Each $1/j$ is an eigenvalue with eigenspace $\mathbb{C}{e}_j$. If $Tx=\lambda x$, each coordinate satisfies $(1/j-\lambda )x_j=0$, so there are no other eigenvalues; in particular zero is not an eigenvalue. But $\Vert T{e}_j\Vert =1/j\to 0$, which contradicts a bounded inverse at zero. Thus zero is in the spectrum.

For $\lambda \notin \{0,1,1/2,1/3,\dots \}$, its distance from this closed set is positive. The diagonal formulathen defines a bounded inverse. This proves the complete description