Absolutely summable sequence space Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
The Banach space consists of absolutely summable scalar sequences, with norm . Its continuous dual is , under the pairing . Finitely supported sequences are norm dense, which identifies a linear functional from its values on coordinate vectors. The space of sequences converging to zero inside this dual is a norming subspace of infinite codimension.
For example, belongs to the absolutely summable sequence space and has norm one, by the geometric series formula. Merely tending to zero is insufficient: tends to zero but its series of absolute values diverges. Thus this sequence space records total absolute size, rather than just the eventual size of individual coordinates. Its completeness ensures that a Cauchy sequence in this total-error norm has an absolutely summable limit.[ref]
https://people.clas.ufl.edu/mjury/files/6617notes30nov2015.pdf. Michael Jury, MAA6617 course notes, section 20.1(b): Banach sequence spaces
Dual norm supremum need not be attained 2026-10-18
On the real space of sequences converging to zero , use the supremum norm and define the linear functionalThe geometric series gives , so is a bounded linear functional and . The sequence with its first entries equal to one and all later entries zero belongs to , has unit supremum norm, and gives . Hence . But if and , not all coordinates can equal one or all equal minus one. Since every weight is positive, . The supremum is approached but never attained on the unit ball.
The continuous linear functional on the real space of sequences converging to zero corresponds to and has operator norm . Equality on the closed unit ball forces on the support of , since every term is nonnegative. Such an can tend to zero only if that support is finite. Conversely, the finite sign sequence attains equality for every finitely supported sequence .
Under duality of sequence spaces, represents on , with operator norm . Here is the space of sequences converging to zero, equipped with its supremum norm.
If and , thenEvery summand is nonnegative, so whenever . Infinitely many such coordinates would give infinitely many , contradicting . Therefore has finite support.
Conversely, if has finite support, choose on that support and elsewhere. Then , , and . The zero functional is included by taking . ThusThis is norm attainment on the vanishing sequence space.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 6 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A point of a convex set is an extreme point if with and forces . It is enough to test midpoints: a nontrivial interior point of a segment is the midpoint of a smaller nontrivial segment.
Here is a proof of the Krein-Milman theorem. The empty-set case is immediate, so take . A face of a convex set is a convex subset such that an interior convex combination lying in has both endpoints in . Consider nonempty compact faces. They include . Every inclusion chain has nonempty intersection, because its closed subsets of the compact set have the finite intersection property. The intersection remains a compact face. The Zorn lemma, ordered by reverse inclusion, therefore supplies a minimal nonempty compact face .
If contains two distinct points, the Hausdorff locally convex hypotheses and the allowed separation theorem supply a continuous real linear functional taking different values there. Its maximizer set in is nonempty and compact. It is convex, and if a convex combination attains the maximum, both endpoint values attain it too; hence it is a face of . A face of a face is a face of , by applying the defining endpoint property twice. This maximizer face is proper because is nonconstant, contradicting minimality. Thus is a singleton, whose point is extreme in . The same minimal compact face argument inside any nonempty compact face shows that each such face contains an extreme point of .
Let . Since is compact, hence closed in the Hausdorff space, and convex, . It is nonempty, closed and convex. If , the allowed strict separation theorem supplies a continuous linear functional withThe maximizer face of on contains an extreme point by the preceding argument. Then but , a contradiction. ThereforeAll closures refer to the given locally convex topology, and compactness is what justified both maxima and chain intersections.
For the real l-infinity sequence space, if for any coordinate, choose . The two distinct sequences belong to the closed unit ball and have midpoint , so is not extreme. Conversely, if every is one or minus one, writing for unit-ball sequences forces at every coordinate, because an endpoint of cannot be a nontrivial convex average of its points. ThusFor the space of sequences converging to zero, every unit-ball sequence has some coordinate with , since its coordinates tend to zero. The same opposite single-coordinate perturbations still belong to , givingThese are extreme points of real sequence-space unit balls. There is no conflict with Krein-Milman: the norm-closed unit ball of is not compact in the norm topology, as the coordinate vectors have mutual distance one.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 6 2 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Suppose the weak-star closure of were a proper linear vector subspace of . The Hahn-Banach separation theorem would give a nonzero weak-star continuous linear functional vanishing on it. A continuous dual of a weak-star topology consists precisely of evaluations at points of : continuity bounds the linear functional by finitely many evaluations, so it factors through their finite-dimensional coordinate map and is a linear combination of them. Thus some would satisfy for all . The norming inequality would imply , a contradiction. Every norming subspace of is weak-star dense.
For the infinite-codimension example, takeHere is the absolutely summable sequence space and is the space of sequences converging to zero, a norm-closed vector subspace of . The dual identification is : a bounded sequence defines a linear functional of norm , and every linear functional on has this form by evaluating on the coordinate vectors and using density of finitely supported sequences.
For , use the finitely supported sequence whose first entries are and whose remaining entries vanish. It belongs to , has norm at most one, andThe reverse inequality follows from . Hence is 1-norming for , an instance of vanishing sequences norm the summable sequence space.
To prove infinite codimension, take disjoint infinite setsTheir indicator sequences have linearly independent classes in . Indeed, a finite combination has the constant value on ; if it tends to zero, every must vanish. Thus the quotient is infinite-dimensional.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 6 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
All vector spaces in this solution are complex, while convex combinations use real coefficients. An extreme point of a convex set is one for which , and , forces . Equivalently, is not the midpoint of two distinct points of .
The Krein-Milman theorem says that every nonempty compact convex set in a Hausdorff locally convex space is the closed convex hull of its extreme points. Here is a proof. A face of a convex set is a convex set such that whenever an interior point of a segment in belongs to , both endpoints belong to . Consider nonempty compact faces, ordered by reverse inclusion. A chain has nonempty intersection by compactness and the finite intersection property; that intersection is again a compact face. The Zorn lemma therefore gives a minimal nonempty compact face .
If contains distinct , a continuous real linear functional on the underlying real locally convex space distinguishes them. Such a linear functional exists because the space is Hausdorff and locally convex, by the Hahn-Banach theorem. The maximizers of on form a nonempty proper compact face of . A face of a face is a face of , contradicting minimality. Therefore is a singleton, yielding an extreme point. The same argument inside any nonempty compact face of supplies an extreme point of lying in that face.
Let be the closed convex hull of the extreme points of . It is a nonempty closed subset of compact , hence compact. If , the Hahn-Banach separation theorem provides a continuous real linear functional with . Its maximizer set on is a nonempty compact face, which contains an extreme point of . But and , a contradiction. Thus , proving Krein-Milman theorem.
For a nonempty compact Hausdorff space , the extreme points of the dual unit ball of C(K) areThis is the permitted description without proof, with denoting the complex space of continuous functions on a compact space equipped with the supremum norm. If is empty, and the closed unit ball of its continuous dual space has the single extreme point instead.
The complex Banach–Stone theorem states that a surjective complex-linear isometric isomorphism of normed spaces has the formwhere and is a homeomorphism. Conversely, every such map is a surjective complex-linear isometric isomorphism of normed spaces for the supremum norm.
To prove this, suppose first that are nonempty. The Banach-space adjoint is a bijective isometric isomorphism of normed spaces on the continuous dual spaces, so it bijects their closed unit balls and preserves extreme points. The displayed extreme point description gives uniquelyUniqueness follows by evaluating at the constant function , and then using that continuous functions separate points of a compact Hausdorff space. Evaluation gives the required formula for , and is continuous. Surjectivity of on extreme points proves surjectivity of : the preimage of any is for some . If , every function in the range of has equal values at these two points after division by ; surjectivity of and separation of points force . Thus is bijective.
For every , is continuous. The evaluation map , , is a continuous injection of a compact Hausdorff space into a Hausdorff product topology, hence a homeomorphism onto its image. Continuity of every coordinate proves continuity of . A continuous bijection between compact Hausdorff spaces is a homeomorphism. Conversely the weighted-composition formula plainly preserves the supremum norm, and its inverse isIf one compact space is empty, a surjective isometric isomorphism of normed spaces forces the other to be empty, and the empty homeomorphism gives the corresponding trivial case. This completes Banach–Stone theorem.
Neither the space of sequences converging to zero nor can be isometrically a continuous dual space of a Banach space. Indeed, every nonzero continuous dual space has a nonempty weak-star compact closed unit ball by Banach-Alaoglu theorem, and Krein-Milman theorem then guarantees an extreme point. A bijective linear isometry preserves extreme points of closed unit balls.
The closed unit ball of has no extreme points. Given with , choose with and . The two distinct elements remain in that closed unit ball and have midpoint .
The closed unit ball of the complex Lp space also has no extreme points. An element of norm less than one can be perturbed by a sufficiently small nonzero Lp space element in both directions. If , the non-atomic measure admits a measurable set of mass ; for example the continuous function attains . Put . For , the distinct functions both have Lp normwith the two coefficients interchanged for the minus sign. Their midpoint is . Thus neither proposed space is isometrically a Banach dual.
Finally, is a connected space, whereas is disconnected. They cannot be homeomorphic. By Banach–Stone theorem, and are not isometrically isomorphic as complex Banach spaces.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 6 5 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Every finitely supported sequence lies in : if for , set for and afterwards. Then is a bounded sequence and . Consequently . The finitely supported sequences are dense in the space of sequences converging to zero for the supremum norm, by truncation, so continuity of the bounded linear functional gives . For in the real convergent sequence space, with ordinary limit , we have . Therefore .
Finite truncations of the sign or phase sequence of belong to and attain increasing partial sums of . Thus the space of sequences converging to zero is 1-norming for the absolutely summable sequence space. Its codimension in is infinite: indicators of pairwise disjoint infinite subsets have linearly independent classes modulo . Norming does not require finite codimension.