Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 9 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A nontangential limit at restricts approach to a fixed Stolz region , where . Radial approach is a special case. The Fatou theorem for bounded holomorphic functions says that every in H-infinity space has a finite boundary value for almost every , with convergence through every fixed Stolz region and almost everywhere.
Here is a proof outline. Write with bounded real harmonic functions . Take a sequence . The bounded functions have a subsequence converging in the weak-star topology of by the Banach-Alaoglu theorem and weak-star metrizability of the dual ball; its predual is separable. Denote the limit by . For , the Poisson integral on the unit disk givesThe Poisson kernels converge uniformly for this fixed interior point and the boundary functions stay uniformly bounded, so the weak-star topology permits passage to the limit:Repeat for , obtaining . Thus is the Poisson integral of .
The Lebesgue differentiation theorem makes almost every boundary point a Lebesgue point of and . The lemma that a Poisson integral converges nontangentially at Lebesgue points then gives in every fixed Stolz region. To see why, put and let be the shorter angular distance. In the kernel satisfiesSplit the circle into a central arc of radius comparable to and annuli with radii . For a Lebesgue point, averages of on sufficiently small arcs are arbitrarily small. The annular contributions are bounded by these averages times a summable geometric sequence . On the remaining fixed distant arc the kernel is , so its contribution vanishes. This proves the claimed nontangential limit. The same Lebesgue points work for every integer aperture , hence for all finite apertures.
These boundary values recover the interior by the Poisson integral, so they determine uniquely. They satisfy : one inequality follows by taking limits of the bounded interior values, and the other from positivity and unit integral of the Poisson kernel. The dominated convergence theorem also gives in every finite norm. Its negative Fourier coefficients vanish, because the Taylor series of has only nonnegative powers. This explains the boundary realization of analytic Hardy spaces.
The exceptional set cannot generally be removed. For example, is bounded and holomorphic on the unit disc, using the holomorphic logarithm on the right half-plane: lies between and . At the boundary point one its radial values oscillate without a limit. Nor does the theorem assert convergence along arbitrary tangential paths or a continuous boundary extension. Its strength is almost-everywhere control on every fixed approach cone.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 6 2 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
True. Choose a norm-dense sequence in the unit ball of the separable normed vector space . On the dual unit ball , defineEach summand is at most , so the series converges uniformly. Symmetry and the triangle inequality follow term by term. If , the two continuous functionals agree on the dense sequence, hence on the unit ball and then on all of . Thus is a metric.
A relative weak-star neighbourhood controls finitely many evaluations. Conversely, to make small, first choose a tail whose sum is small and then control the finitely many evaluations at . This proves that each metric ball is weak-star open. For the other direction, let and . Approximate by when . Since on ,The second term can be made smaller than by choosing ; the first is smaller than whenever is sufficiently small, because . Every evaluation is therefore metric-continuous. These two inclusions show that induces exactly the weak-star topology, proving weak-star metrizability of the dual ball without a completeness assumption on .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 7 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
True. Choose a countable dense sequence in the separable Banach space . For in its closed dual unit ball, putThis is a metric: positivity follows because continuous functionals agreeing on a dense subset agree everywhere; symmetry is immediate; and the triangle inequality follows from subadditivity of for . The tail of the series is uniformly small, so convergence on these coordinates implies convergence for this metric, and conversely metric convergence controls each individual coordinate.
The uniform bound upgrades coordinate convergence to pointwise convergence on all of . For any , choose close to and useFor neighbourhoods involving finitely many , choose finitely many such approximations. This proves equality of the induced topologies, including for arbitrary nets. Thus the weak-star metrizability of the dual ball gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 106 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For a convex subset of a Banach space, weak closure equals norm closure. The Mazur theorem states that for every convex set ,Since every bounded linear functional is norm-continuous, the weak topology is weaker than the norm topology, giving .
For the reverse inclusion, use this form of the Hahn-Banach separation theorem: if is a nonempty norm-closed convex set in a real normed vector space and , there is a continuous real-linear functional such thatApply it to . In a complex Banach space, use the underlying real space; every continuous real-linear is the real part of the complex bounded linear functional . The separating strict inequality gives a neighbourhood open for the weak topology of disjoint from , so . The empty set case is immediate. This proves the Mazur theorem.
A weakly null sequence has disjoint convex blocks converging to zero in norm. If , then for every starting index ,The Mazur theorem places in the norm closure of that tail convex hull. Thus a finite convex combination of vectors from any tail can have norm less than any prescribed .
Choose the convex blocks recursively. After selecting the previous terminal index , let , and choose a finite convex combination from with norm less than . Choose beyond its largest used index, padding the intervening coefficients and the final coefficient with zero. This ensures the printed strict condition as well as . Setting unused coefficients to zero yieldsTherefore in norm. The recursive tail selection is what makes these convex blocks, rather than merely unrelated convex combinations.
Next suppose is separable and is bounded. Use the canonical embedding into the bidual , where . If , then . The Banach-Alaoglu theorem makes this ball compact in , and weak-star metrizability of the dual ball makes it metrizable because its predual is separable. A compact space that is a metric space is sequentially compact, so some subsequence satisfiesThe limit need not belong to ; it is precisely the use of the bidual space that supplies compactness without assuming reflexivity.
For a convex block , every satisfiesBoth and tend to , soThis is the useful convex-block cancellation of a weak-star limit; it does not require the limit to be a vector in .
The quotient sequence has approximate lifts in that are weakly null after passing to a subsequence. Let be the quotient map, with the quotient norm. Since , choose such thatThis uses the infimum defining the quotient norm and does not assume that it is attained. By the preceding compactness argument, pass to a subsequence with a common weak-star limit in . Its quotient images form a weakly null sequence.
Apply the convex block construction to in the quotient Banach space. Using the same coefficients on gives convex blocksSet . The convex-block cancellation of a weak-star limit proves , whileThus the approximate weakly null lifting through a quotient is achieved with the required bound:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 106 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The weak-star topology is the coarsest topology making continuous for every . Its basic neighbourhoods of zero impose finitely many inequalities .
Suppose first that zero had a countable neighbourhood base in the entire dual. Choose a basic neighbourhood controlled by a finite set , and let . Given , the neighbourhood contains some , hence . If , the Hahn-Banach theorem supplies a bounded linear functional which vanishes on but has . Indeed, the finite-dimensional span is closed, and the functional taking to on its sum with is bounded because . Every scalar multiple of lies in , contradicting . Thus , and has countable Hamel dimension.
If is infinite-dimensional, every finite-dimensional is closed and has empty interior. Completeness rules out their union. For clarity, the Baire category theorem needed here has a direct nested-ball proof: inside a starting open ball choose a closed ball missing , then inside its interior choose a closed ball missing , and continue with positive radii tending to zero. The centres are Cauchy; their limit belongs to every ball and to none of the , a contradiction. A metric topology would have a countable ball base at zero. HenceThis is the weak-star topology on an entire infinite-dimensional Banach dual is not metrizable result. It does not contradict weak-star metrizability of the dual ball for a separable predual: that assertion concerns a bounded subset.
The Banach-Alaoglu theorem states that is compact for for every normed vector space , whether complete or not. Embed it in the product by its evaluations. Each factor is compact, so Tychonoff theorem makes the product compact Hausdorff. The equations expressing additivity and scalar homogeneity define a closed subset of the product. Its elements are exactly the bounded linear functionals of norm at most one, since the coordinate bounds give . The induced product topology is precisely weak-star, proving the theorem.
The theorem printed as “Goldstein” is the standard Goldstine theorem: is weak-star dense in for the canonical embedding into the bidual. To prove it, fix and . The set is convex. If were outside its closure, finite-dimensional Hahn-Banach separation theorem would supply coefficients such that, for ,The real case omits real parts; in the complex case every real-linear separating functional on has the displayed form. The supremum equals the dual norm by multiplying vectors by signs or unimodular scalars. The strict inequality contradicts . Thus , which is exactly approximation on every prescribed finite family of weak-star coordinates.
Now take with its compact Hausdorff weak-star topology. For each , the evaluation is continuous on , and Hahn-Banach theorem gives . Thereforeis the isometric evaluation embedding into continuous functions on a compact dual ball, over the same scalar field as .
For the final sequential assertions, choose a norm-dense sequence in the separable dual and suppose . Each bounded scalar sequence has a convergent subsequence: divide a bounding interval or square into finitely many smaller closed pieces, repeatedly retain one containing infinitely many terms, and let the diameters tend to zero. Successive extraction for , followed by a diagonal subsequence , makes every converge.
If the conclusion is immediate. Otherwise, for any and , choose with . For sufficiently large ,Thus exists for every . Taking limits proves linearity, and provesThis diagonal argument includes the continuity estimate rather than appealing to a sequential compactness theorem.
If is not reflexive, choose , scaling a bidual element outside if necessary. The Goldstine theorem proved above supplies with for . Norm density and the bound extend this convergence to every . Hence weak-star. Every subsequence has the same coordinate limits, so a weakly convergent subsequence with limit would give , a contradiction. This sequential Goldstine approximation for a separable dual provesThe construction uses the Goldstine proof already given, not an unproved weak sequential compactness result.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 106 1 c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
If is reflexive, then is reflexive. The weak topology and weak-star topology therefore coincide under the canonical identification . Thus every weak-star convergent sequence in is weakly convergent, so is a Grothendieck space.
Conversely, suppose that is separable and Grothendieck. The Banach-Alaoglu theorem and weak-star metrizability of the dual ball make weak-star compact and metrizable, hence weak-star sequentially compact. Every convergent subsequence is weakly convergent by the Grothendieck property. Thus is weakly sequentially compact. The stated converse to part (a), equivalently the other direction of the Eberlein-Šmulian theorem, makes weakly compact. Hence is reflexive, and therefore so is .
Finally let be bounded and onto, with Grothendieck, and suppose weak-star in . Thenweak-star in , hence weakly. The open mapping theorem implies that is an isomorphism onto its closed range. Given , the functionalis bounded on and extends by the Hahn-Banach theorem to some . ThereforeThis is weak convergence in , so is Grothendieck.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 106 2 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Choose a norm-dense sequence in the unit sphere of the separable dual . For every , choose with . If a functional vanished on the closed linear span of the , normalize it and choose with ; then , a contradiction. The Hahn-Banach theorem therefore shows that the span of is dense, so is separable.
Choose a norm-dense sequence in . On defineWeak-star convergence implies convergence in this metric. Conversely, metric convergence gives convergence on the dense set , and the uniform norm bound on the dual ball extends it to every . Thus metrizes the weak-star topology, proving weak-star metrizability of the dual ball.
Similarly, for a norm-dense sequence in ,metrizes the weak topology on . Indeed, convergence against the dense functionals extends to every because remains norm bounded.
Weak-star separability of the entire dual Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
The continuous dual of a separable Banach space is separable in its weak-star topology, even when it is not norm separable. Banach-Alaoglu theorem and weak-star metrizability of the dual ball make the dual unit ball a separable compact metric space. The countable union of positive integer multiples of a countable dense subset of that ball is dense in the whole dual. This does not imply global weak-star metrizability.
Weak-star topology on an entire infinite-dimensional Banach dual is not metrizable Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
A countable local base at zero would give countably many finite sets of evaluation vectors. Any other evaluation must lie in the span of one of those finite sets: otherwise a bounded functional vanishing on that set but not on the evaluation vector, supplied by Hahn-Banach theorem, contradicts inclusion of neighbourhoods after scalar rescaling. Thus the predual has countable Hamel dimension, impossible for an infinite-dimensional Banach space by the Baire category theorem. This concerns the entire dual, unlike weak-star metrizability of the dual ball.