Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / ii / Paper 4 / 21F / iii / Solution

Apply the spectral theorem for compact Hermitian operators to positive $A=T^{\ast }T$. Its positive eigenvalues ${\mu }_i$ have orthonormal eigenvectors $u_i$ spanning $\ker A^{\perp }$, with a finite or countable list. In the infinite case ${\mu }_i\to 0$. DefineThen $(v_i,v_j)=(u_i,T^{\ast }T{u}_j)/({\lambda }_i{\lambda }_j)={\delta }_{ij}$, so the $v_i$ are orthonormal. Also $\ker A=\ker T$, because $(x,Ax)=\Vert Tx{\Vert }^2$. Decompose $x=x_0+{\sum }_i(u_i,x)u_i$ with $x_0\in \ker T$ and apply bounded $T$ to the norm-convergent expansion. This gives the singular value decompositionThe series converges in norm; its squared tail norm is ${\sum }_{i>m}{\mu }_i|(u_i,x){|}^2\to 0$. No separability of the whole Hilbert space is necessary: the nonzero spectral subspace of a compact operator is separable. For $T=0$ use the empty list $N=0$.