Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / iii / Paper 326 / 1 / 3 / b / Solution

The Picard criterion with the input/output convention above statesNecessity follows from $⟨f,v_j⟩={\sigma }_j⟨u,u_j⟩$ and Bessel inequality. Conversely the summability constructs $u={\sum }_j{\sigma }_j^{-1}⟨f,v_j⟩u_j\in U$; the closure condition ensures that its image is all of $f$. The closure condition must not be omitted: a component orthogonal to the range cannot be reconstructed.

For the diagonal example, $f_j=j^{-p}$ is itself in ${\ell }^2$ only for $p>1/2$. Its preimage would be $u_j=j^{1-p}$, so the range criterion is the convergence of ${\sum }_j{j}^{2-2p}$. The P-series givesAt $p=3/2$ the reconstruction norm diverges harmonically. For $1/2<p\le 3/2$ the data are legitimate but have no preimage; for $0<p\le 1/2$ they are not even in the specified data space.