Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2010 / iii / Paper 6 / 2

False. We construct a compact Hausdorff space with a countable dense discrete subspace but no compatible metric. Letfor each subset $S\subseteq \mathbb{N}$. Give $P$ its product topology, and let $X=\overline{j(\mathbb{N})}$ in $P$. The Tychonoff theorem makes $P$ compact, and the product is Hausdorff; hence $X$ is a compact Hausdorff space. By construction, $Y=j(\mathbb{N})$ is countable and dense in $X$, so $X$ is a separable topological space. The coordinate $S=\{n\}$ isolates $j(n)$ within $Y$. Thus the subspace topology on $Y$ is discrete and is induced by the discrete metric.

Suppose $X$ were metrizable. An infinite sequence of distinct points of $Y$ would have a convergent subsequence, by sequential compactness of a compact metric space. Write this subsequence as $j(n_k)$ with distinct $n_k$. For $S=\{n_2,n_4,n_6,\dots \}$, its $S$ coordinate alternates between zero and one and therefore does not converge. But coordinate projections are continuous in the product topology, so every coordinate of a convergent sequence must converge. This contradiction proves that $X$ is not metrizable. This is a separable compactification need not be metrizable counterexample.

True. In the norm topology on the unit ball, the set $\{x\in B:\Vert x\Vert <1/2\}$ is a neighbourhood of zero. If the relative weak topology agrees with it, there are finitely many continuous linear functionals $f_1,\dots ,f_m$ and positive ${ϵ}_j$ such thatIf ${\bigcap }_j\ker f_j$ contained a nonzero vector, rescaling it to have norm $3/4$ would put it in the left-hand set but not the right-hand set. Therefore ${\bigcap }_j\ker f_j=\{0\}$. The linear mapis injective into a finite-dimensional scalar space, soThis proof works for either the open or closed unit-ball convention and does not require completeness.

False. Take the separable Banach space $E={\ell }^1$, whose continuous dual space is ${\ell }^{\infty }$. We prove that first countability of the weak unit ball would force this dual to be norm separable, producing a contradiction.

Suppose that $B$ had a countable weak neighbourhood base $(U_n)$ at zero. Inside each $U_n$, choose a basic relative weak neighbourhood specified by finitely many continuous linear functionals $F_n$. The union $F={\bigcup }_n{F}_n$ is countable. For any $f\in E^{\prime }$ and $ϵ>0$, some $U_n$ lies in $\{x\in B:|f(x)|<ϵ\}$. On the vector subspacethis implies $\Vert f{|}_{M_n}\Vert \le ϵ$, by scaling vectors into $B$. The Hahn-Banach theorem extends $f{|}_{M_n}$ to $h\in E^{\prime }$ with $\Vert h\Vert \le ϵ$. The functional $f-h$ vanishes on $M_n$ and is therefore a linear combination of $F_n$: it factors through the finite-dimensional coordinate map $x\mapsto (g(x){)}_{g\in F_n}$, and a linear functional on that map's image extends to the finite-dimensional coordinate space. HenceEvery $f\in E^{\prime }$ thus belongs to the norm closure of $\mathrm{span}F$. Taking rational coefficients, or rational real and imaginary parts, gives a countable norm-dense subset of $E^{\prime }$. This proves that weak-ball metrizability requires a norm-separable dual.

For ${\ell }^1$, every bounded sequence $a=(a_j)$ defines $f_a(x)={\sum }_j{a}_j{x}_j$ with $\Vert f_a\Vert =\Vert a{\Vert }_{\infty }$. Conversely, the values $f(e_j)$ of any bounded linear functional determine such a sequence and recover $f$ by density of finitely supported vectors. Thus $E^{\prime }={\ell }^{\infty }$. The uncountable family $\{0,1{\}}^{\mathbb{N}}$ in ${\ell }^{\infty }$ has distance one between distinct members, so this dual is not norm separable: disjoint balls of radius less than $1/2$ would require distinct members of any countable dense set. Since every metrizable space is first countable, the weak unit ball of ${\ell }^1$ is not metrizable.

True. Choose a norm-dense sequence $(x_n)$ in the unit ball of the separable normed vector space $E$. On the dual unit ball $B^{\prime }$, defineEach summand is at most $2^{1-n}$, so the series converges uniformly. Symmetry and the triangle inequality follow term by term. If $d(\varphi ,\psi )=0$, the two continuous functionals agree on the dense sequence, hence on the unit ball and then on all of $E$. Thus $d$ is a metric.

A relative weak-star neighbourhood controls finitely many evaluations. Conversely, to make $d$ small, first choose a tail whose sum is small and then control the finitely many evaluations at $x_1,\dots ,x_N$. This proves that each metric ball is weak-star open. For the other direction, let $x\in E$ and $ϵ>0$. Approximate $x/\Vert x\Vert$ by $x_n$ when $x\ne 0$. Since $\Vert \varphi -\psi \Vert \le 2$ on $B^{\prime }$,The second term can be made smaller than $ϵ/2$ by choosing $n$; the first is smaller than $ϵ/2$ whenever $d(\varphi ,\psi )$ is sufficiently small, because $|\varphi (x_n)-\psi (x_n)|\le 2^{n}d(\varphi ,\psi )$. Every evaluation is therefore metric-continuous. These two inclusions show that $d$ induces exactly the weak-star topology, proving weak-star metrizability of the dual ball without a completeness assumption on $E$.