Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / ib / Paper 1 / 11F (Analysis II)

Two Lipschitz equivalent norms $N_1,N_2$ satisfy $c{N}_1(v)\le N_2(v)\le C{N}_1(v)$ for all $v$, for constants $0<c\le C<\infty$. These inequalities give the same convergent sequences in both norms. A subset of a metric space is closed exactly when it contains the limits of all convergent sequences from that subset. Therefore closedness is the same in the two norms.

For finite dimension, fix a basis $e_1,\dots ,e_d$ and let $x={\sum }_j{x}_j{e}_j$. For any norm $N$,The reverse triangle inequality then makes $N$ continuous in the Euclidean coordinate norm. If no positive lower bound existed on the Euclidean unit sphere, choose $x_m$ there with $N(x_m)\to 0$. By the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem, a subsequence converges to $x$ on the unit sphere. Continuity would give $N(x)=0$, although $x\ne 0$, a contradiction. Thus $N$ is bounded below by a positive multiple of the Euclidean norm. Comparing any two norms through that coordinate norm proves all norms in finite dimension are Lipschitz equivalent.

On $C[0,1]$, nonnegativity, absolute homogeneity and the triangle inequality for $\Vert f{\Vert }_1={\int }_0^1|f|$ follow from the corresponding real-number properties and integration. If a continuous $f$ is nonzero at a point, it has absolute value bounded below by a positive constant on a nontrivial one-sided or two-sided interval around that point. Its integral is then positive. Hence $\Vert f{\Vert }_1=0$ implies $f=0$, completing the norm axioms.

For $n\ge 2$, put $g_n(x)=\max \{1-n|x-1/2|,0\}$ and $f_n=1-g_n$. Then $f_n(1/2)=0$, butThe limit function $1$ is not in the indicated point evaluation kernel. Consequently that set is not closed in the integral norm. This is the point-evaluation kernel is not closed in the integral norm phenomenon.

Finally $\Vert g_n{\Vert }_{\infty }=1$ while $\Vert g_n{\Vert }_1=1/n$. Thus no constant can bound the uniform norm by a multiple of the integral norm. Although $\Vert f{\Vert }_1\le \Vert f{\Vert }_{\infty }$ on this unit interval, the converse comparison fails: the two norms are not Lipschitz equivalent. The finite-dimensional theorem cannot be applied to this infinite-dimensional function space.