The Riesz-Markov-Kakutani representation theorem identifies the dual of the complex space of continuous functions on a compact space with finite regular complex Borel measures on : each bounded linear functional has a unique representation
Here is the variation measure; positive functionals correspond exactly to positive regular measures. This is the measure representation theorem, rather than the Hilbert-space representation of a functional by a vector.
For the spectral construction use the convention that the Hilbert inner product is linear in its first argument. A unital subalgebra of is understood to contain : an algebra whose abstract identity is a smaller projection could not give a resolution normalized by . On a compact Hausdorff space, a resolution of the identity is understood to be a normalized regular projection-valued measure: its scalar measures are regular, its values are orthogonal projections, and it is countably additive in the strong operator topology. Regularity is part of the usual convention needed for the uniqueness assertion; the statement is interpreted in this sense.
The Commutative Gelfand--Naimark theorem makes the Gelfand transform an isometric unital star-isomorphism , where is compact Hausdorff. Denote its inverse by . For , the bounded linear functional has norm at most . Riesz-Markov-Kakutani gives a regular complex measure such that
Uniqueness makes these measures sesquilinear in . For , the identity shows positivity, so is positive with total mass .
For every Borel set , the bounded sesquilinear form determines an operator by Hilbert-space Riesz representation theorem, with
In particular and is self-adjoint. We now verify the projection identity rather than assume it.
For continuous , uniqueness of the representing measure applied to continuous test functions gives
These identities imply . Testing once more against a continuous gives
The restriction of a finite regular Borel measure is still regular, so uniqueness in Riesz-Markov-Kakutani yields . Consequently, for any Borel ,
Taking proves that is an orthogonal projection. Also and . For disjoint , these projections are orthogonal, and scalar countable additivity gives weak countable additivity. If , then is the projection of the remaining union and
Thus countable additivity holds in the strong operator topology. The scalar measures are the regular measures already constructed. This completes the scalar-measure construction of a projection-valued measure.
By the integral theorem permitted in the question, continuous satisfies , and hence . For , this proves the spectral theorem for a commutative operator algebra:
Any other regular resolution giving these integrals has the same scalar integrals on all of ; Riesz-Markov-Kakutani uniqueness forces the same scalar measures and therefore the same projections on every Borel set.
For nonempty open , compact Hausdorff normality supplies a nonzero continuous function supported in . If , the stated squared-norm identity for spectral integrals gives , contradicting the isometry of . This proves the full support of a faithful spectral measure property
Faithfulness of the representation is essential here.
The spectral theorem for normal operators says that a bounded normal operator on a nonzero complex Hilbert space has a unique regular projection-valued measure on such that . Its support is all of , and bounded Borel functions have the associated Borel functional calculus for a normal operator.
For the proof sketch, is commutative because commutes with ; polynomials in these two operators commute, as do their norm limits. The map , , is onto by the character of an algebra formula and spectral permanence for C-star algebras. It is one-to-one because a character of an algebra preserves the star operation and its values on determine it on their dense polynomial algebra. It is therefore a homeomorphism from compact to the Hausdorff spectrum. Transport the resolution just constructed through this homeomorphism. It gives the formula for and full support; conversely a regular resolution for gives the same integrals for polynomials in , hence by density the same continuous functional calculus and the same resolution. This argument works without separability of .
Finally choose disjoint nonempty relatively open sets around two distinct spectral points, and put . Full support gives and , while , so . The spectral integral, or multiplicativity of its Borel calculus with , gives and also . Thus is closed, nonzero and proper, and . The spectral projection gives a reducing subspace conclusion is
In fact it is a reducing subspace, since it is also invariant under .
The Lax-Milgram theorem assumes that is a real Hilbert space and is a bounded bilinear form and a coercive bilinear form: there are such that
Then for every continuous linear functional there is a unique satisfying
Symmetry of is not required.
For the proof, the Riesz representation theorem provides a bounded linear operator and with and . Coercivity and the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality imply
Thus is injective and its range is closed: if converges, the displayed inequality makes a Cauchy sequence; completeness gives and . If lies in the orthogonal complement of the range, then for all . Taking gives , so . A closed subspace with zero orthogonal complement is all of , hence is surjective. The unique solution is , and the same inequality gives the asserted norm bound.
Write for the indicator functional of a constraint set and . Then
Both terms are convex, hence their infimal convolution is the convex squared distance to a convex set. The closest point theorem in a Hilbert space supplies the unique metric projection onto a closed convex set and gives .
Identify the Hilbert space with its dual space using the Riesz representation theorem. Completing the square yields , while is the support function. The conjugate of the squared distance to a convex set is therefore
For the closed unit ball, the metric projection onto a closed convex set is if , and otherwise. Therefore
The last equality uses the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to compute the unit ball's support function, attained in the direction of when .
For , define by . If , then in particular
so . Thus is injective. Since a finite-dimensional vector space and its dual space have the same dimension, is also surjective and hence an isomorphism. This is the finite-dimensional real case of the Riesz representation theorem.
The adjoint operator of is the unique linear map satisfying
for every and . In the stated orthonormal bases, if and denote coordinate columns, then
Therefore the matrix of is the matrix transpose .
For ,
Hence . Taking orthogonal complements in the finite-dimensional space proves the image-kernel orthogonality for an adjoint
Put . For any ,
This is minimized at exactly when , equivalently when . Thus the normal equation for a linear inverse problem is
For the given linear least-squares problem,
The normal equations and have the unique solution
Consider a bounded Lipschitz domain and homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions for
Assume is a bounded real symmetric matrix field with uniformly, is bounded, and defines a bounded linear functional on , the zero-boundary Sobolev space. The weak formulation is
The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives continuity . Uniform ellipticity and the Poincare inequality give a coercive bilinear form, . The Lax-Milgram theorem therefore supplies a unique weak solution, with . Its proof represents by a bounded linear operator using the Riesz representation theorem; coercivity gives an injective operator with closed image, and a zero orthogonal complement makes that image all of . This yields existence, uniqueness and the displayed estimate.
For a conforming finite element space , the Galerkin method finds such that for every . With a basis , this is the linear system , where the stiffness matrix is and . Its positive-definite matrix property proves unique discrete solvability. Local support gives a sparse matrix through elementwise assembly.
For the symmetric problem, the Ritz method minimizes over . Differentiating in every direction gives precisely the Galerkin method equations. Conversely, if solves them, , proving it is the unique minimum. The same argument over gives , where is the energy norm. Thus the Ritz method chooses the best trial function in that norm.
Subtracting the continuous and discrete equations gives Galerkin orthogonality, . For arbitrary and , it follows that . Coercivity and continuity prove the Céa lemma:
In the symmetric energy norm, the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality improves the constant to one. Equivalently, Galerkin orthogonality gives the Pythagorean identity . These estimates establish stability and show that approximation properties of the trial space determine convergence.
For continuous piecewise-linear elements on a shape-regular mesh in dimensions at most three, a finite element interpolation estimate gives when . Combining it with the Céa lemma yields energy norm error. More generally, degree- elements give error in under the corresponding regularity and approximation assumptions. Mere mesh refinement cannot supply an order whose required solution regularity is absent.
An additional order in the L2 norm follows under a dual elliptic regularity assumption. Solve and assume . The Aubin–Nitsche duality argument uses Galerkin orthogonality to obtain
Therefore , giving for the piecewise-linear case with . This improvement explicitly requires regularity of the dual problem.
As a concrete example, solve on with zero endpoint values. On a uniform mesh of spacing , the piecewise-linear hat functions give , and . The discrete equations are , whose solution is . The exact solution is , so is its piecewise-linear nodal interpolant. On each interval ,
Integrating the squared error and squared derivative error gives the explicit rates
where the norm here is .
For nonsymmetric coercive problems, the Galerkin method, Galerkin orthogonality and the Céa lemma still apply, but the symmetric quadratic minimization interpretation of the Ritz method generally does not. Nonconforming trial spaces, inexact integration and noncoercive equations need additional arguments beyond the conforming coercive theory proved here.
The real Riesz representation theorem states that for every bounded linear functional on a real Hilbert space there is a unique such that
and .
If , take . Otherwise is a closed proper subspace, so the supplied orthogonal decomposition by a closed subspace gives a nonzero . Since , for every ,
Taking its inner product with yields
and therefore
Thus represents . If both and represent it, then for every ; taking proves uniqueness. Finally, Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives , while evaluating at when gives the reverse inequality. Hence
By part (a), is a bounded bilinear form: . For each fixed , the map is consequently a bounded linear functional. The Riesz representation theorem supplies a unique vector such that
Uniqueness of the representing vector makes linear, and makes it a bounded linear operator.
The coercivity assumption implies
hence . Moreover, using the adjoint operator,
so the same argument gives . The invertibility from lower bounds on an operator and its adjoint therefore shows that is invertible and is bounded.
Set . Then for every . If another has this property, then , and the injectivity of gives . Thus the unique vector is .
Put with its usual Hilbert space inner product, and define
The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality shows that this is a bounded bilinear form. For , Young inequality gives
and therefore
Because , this is a coercive bilinear form.
The map is a bounded linear functional on . By the Riesz representation theorem, it equals for some . Applying part (b) produces one and only one such that
This is precisely the weak formulation of the stated Dirichlet problem, obtained by integration by parts in the Laplace operator term. Thus is its unique weak solution; this is the constant-drift massive-Laplacian Dirichlet problem.
Assume . For each , define the bounded functional
Weak convergence makes convergent, hence bounded, for every . The Uniform boundedness principle gives
By the Riesz representation theorem, , so is bounded.
Taking in the definition of weak convergence in a Hilbert space gives
for every . Thus (i) implies (ii).
For fixed , the map is a bounded functional. The Riesz representation theorem gives a unique vector representing it. Linearity, uniqueness, and make the unique bounded adjoint operator.
Let and satisfy the hypotheses of the Lax-Milgram theorem. By the Riesz representation theorem, there are a bounded linear operator and such that
Coercivity and the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality imply
so . Thus is injective and its range is closed. If is orthogonal to its range, then for every ; taking and using coercivity gives . The range is therefore dense as well as closed, hence all of . There is a unique , and it satisfies for all . The lower bound also gives .
For fixed , the functional
is bounded on by the continuous embedding from part 2:
The Riesz representation theorem gives a unique such that for every . It also gives
so the linear operator is bounded.
The functional
is bounded on by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the Poincare inequality:
The Riesz representation theorem therefore supplies a unique satisfying
for every test function. This is exactly the weak identity from part (a). Uniqueness also follows by testing the homogeneous difference with itself.
For each , define the bounded linear functional
The hypothesis is precisely that converges weakly to . In particular, for each fixed , the scalar sequence converges and is therefore bounded. Thus the family is pointwise bounded.
The Uniform boundedness principle gives
By the Riesz representation theorem, . Hence
so the sequence is bounded.
Put , so . We show that the norm closure of the convex hull of every tail
contains zero. If it did not, the Hahn-Banach separation theorem would give a bounded linear functional , a real number , and, after multiplying by a complex scalar if necessary,
for every in that closed convex hull. In particular for all . By the Riesz representation theorem, for some , contradicting .
Consequently, for every there is a finite convex combination
with . Define
Then every is a convex combination of terms of the original sequence and
This is Mazur lemma in the present Hilbert-space setting.
Fix . The map is a linear functional, so the finite-dimensional Riesz representation theorem gives a unique vector such that
For scalars ,
Uniqueness gives
so is linear.
For , apply this result to
It produces a unique linear map satisfying
which proves existence and uniqueness of the adjoint.
A symmetric function is a positive-semidefinite kernel when, for every , every , and every ,
Equivalently, every associated kernel matrix is a positive semidefinite matrix.
A Reproducing-kernel Hilbert space on is a Hilbert space of real-valued functions such that every point-evaluation map is continuous. The Riesz representation theorem then gives a function satisfying the reproducing property
Its reproducing kernel is .
Part b(vi) and part c show that implies
Conversely, choose a unit vector with arbitrarily close to , put , and take . Part c gives and
Taking the supremum proves
Thus is an isometric embedding .
Suppose finite-rank operators are dense in and let . The sesquilinear form
satisfies . The Riesz representation theorem gives with . Hence , and linearity gives equality on every finite-rank operator. Density and continuity extend it to every , proving surjectivity.
Conversely, if finite-rank operators were not dense, the Hahn-Banach theorem would give a nonzero vanishing on their closure. Surjectivity would represent it by some , but then
for all , forcing and , a contradiction. This proves the stated trace duality criterion.
The Riesz representation theorem says that for every bounded linear functional on a Hilbert space , there is a unique such that
and .
For and fixed , the map
is a bounded linear functional, with
Riesz therefore gives a unique vector, denoted , such that
for every . Uniqueness in the representation theorem shows that is linear. Moreover,
so the adjoint operator belongs to and .
If is an orthonormal basis and is the matrix of , then the matrix of is
its entries are .
The Riesz representation theorem says every bounded linear functional on a Hilbert space has a unique with and . For , decompose relative to ; its one-dimensional orthogonal complement supplies , and Cauchy-Schwarz proves the norm statement and uniqueness.