Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2009 / iii / Paper 9 / 2 / a

First let $1\le p<\infty$, and take a Cauchy sequence $f_j$ in the Lp space, with functions identified almost everywhere. Choose a subsequence $f_{j_k}$ with $\Vert f_{j_{k+1}}-f_{j_k}{\Vert }_p\le 2^{-k}$ and put $a_k=f_{j_{k+1}}-f_{j_k}$. The triangle inequality givesBy the monotone convergence theorem, $A={\sum }_{k\ge 1}|a_k|$ belongs to $L^p$, and is finite almost everywhere. The series $f_{j_1}+{\sum }_{k\ge 1}{a}_k$ therefore converges almost everywhere to an $L^p$ function $f$. Applying the same argument to each absolute tail yieldsThe original sequence is Cauchy, so the triangle inequality extends convergence from this subsequence to the whole sequence.

For $p=\infty$, choose the same subsequence in essential supremum norm. Outside one null set, all its difference bounds hold simultaneously:The series then converges uniformly on that full-measure set to a bounded measurable $f$, and $\Vert f-f_{j_k}{\Vert }_{\infty }\le {\sum }_{\ell \ge k}{2}^{-\ell }$. Again the full sequence converges. Thus every $L^p$, $1\le p\le \infty$, is a Banach space, proving completeness of Lp spaces.