Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 106 1 c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
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-Smulian 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 1 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
A character of an algebra is a nonzero multiplicative complex-linear functional , and the character space of an algebra is the set of all such characters. Since is unital, . Moreover : otherwise would be invertible, while applying to its inverse identity would give . The spectral radius estimate therefore yieldsThus every character is continuous and has norm one.
Let be a maximal ideal. Its norm closure is again an ideal. It cannot equal , because then some would satisfy , making invertible by the Neumann series and forcing . Hence is closed. The quotient is a complex unital Banach division algebra, so the Gelfand-Mazur theorem identifies it with . Composing the quotient map with this isomorphism gives a character with kernel . Conversely, a character kernel is maximal because its quotient is .
Now exactly when is not invertible, equivalently when it lies in some maximal ideal. The preceding result turns that ideal into , giving . The reverse implication follows from the first paragraph, so
The Gelfand topology is the weak-star topology on . The Gelfand transform isIts values are continuous by the definition of the topology, and multiplicativity and linearity of characters show that it is a unital algebra homomorphism. Finallyso it is continuous.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 106 1 Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
A Schauder basis of a real Banach space is a sequence for which every has a unique norm-convergent expansion . Its basis projection isand its basis constant is .
For the sequence space in the question, defineConvergence in the definition of makes well defined, and uniqueness of basis coefficients makes it a linear bijection. Moreover,whereasThus is an isomorphism and, in particular, the displayed supremum really is a complete norm on .
The coordinate functional of a Schauder basis isIt is bounded because . On finite linear combinations of the , the nth partial-sum operator is the restriction of , sinceThe operators have norms at most , so the standard basis criterion shows that the dual sequence of a Schauder basis is a basic sequence in . For every and ,which is precisely in the weak-star topology.
Suppose now that is a reflexive Banach space. If did not tend to zero, approximation by finite basis blocks would give a bounded block sequence and an such that . Reflexivity gives a weakly convergent subsequence. Every fixed coordinate functional is eventually zero on a block sequence, so its weak limit has every basis coordinate zero and is therefore zero. This contradicts . Hence in norm for every , so the basis is shrinking and is a basis of .
The converse fails. The standard basis of is shrinking because its dual sequence is the standard basis of , but is not reflexive.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 106 2 c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For a unital Banach algebra, belongs to : otherwise would be invertible, while applying to its inverse identity would give . Thereforeso every character of an algebra is continuous and has norm one. The nonunital case follows by extending the character to the unitization of an algebra.
The Gelfand topology on is the weak-star topology inherited from : a net converges to exactly when for every . If is unital, lies in the weak-star compact dual unit ball by the Banach-Alaoglu theorem. The equationsdefine a weak-star closed subset, so is compact.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 106 3 Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
LetChoose positive with . We construct inductively. Once has been chosen, compactness of its unit sphere gives finitely many members of that almost norm every vector of . Because , the next may be chosen so that all those functionals are as small on it as required. Choosing the error relative to givesfor all scalars . Indeed, if the last coefficient could threaten this estimate, first bounds that coefficient by a fixed multiple of the norm of the preceding sum; the selected norming functional then gives the displayed inequality. Iteration and the finite product bound satisfy the standard basis criterion, so is a basic sequence contained in .
The same proof works for any Hausdorff locally convex vector topology weaker than the weak topology: on each finite-dimensional , the -continuous linear functionals still norm the space, and supplies the next point. A canonical strictly weaker example arises on when is not reflexive: the weak-star topology is then strictly weaker than the weak topology .
We next prove the Eberlein-Smulian theorem. If the weak closure of a bounded set is weakly compact, take any sequence in and let be its closed linear span. The relevant weak closure lies in the separable space . A countable weak-star dense subset of the dual unit ball separates points of this compact set, so its weak topology is metrizable. Compact metrizability gives a weakly convergent subsequence.
For the converse, suppose is not relatively weakly compact. In the canonical embedding into , chooseThe Hahn-Banach theorem gives that vanishes on but satisfies . Alternating Goldstine approximation with the fact that lies in the weak-star closure of constructs bounded and such that, up to errors tending to zero,If a subsequence converged weakly to , then for each fixed the second relation would give . A weak-star cluster point of the bounded sequence satisfies by the first relation, and hence by weak convergence; but passing to the same cluster point in gives . This contradiction produces a sequence in with no weakly convergent subsequence. Relative weak compactness is therefore equivalent to the subsequence condition.
Finally suppose is weakly sequentially compact and . If lies in the norm closure of , a norm-convergent sequence suffices. Otherwise apply the first part to and obtain a basic sequence . A subsequence converges weakly by hypothesis. Its weak limit lies in the closed span of the basic sequence, while every coordinate functional is eventually zero on that subsequence. The limit is consequently zero, so the corresponding sequence from converges weakly to .
This also shows that a weakly sequentially compact is weakly closed: any point of its weak closure is the limit of a sequence in , and a weakly convergent subsequence has its limit in . The relative form of the Eberlein-Smulian theorem then makes weakly compact. The reverse implication follows from the first direction of that theorem. Thus weak compactness and weak sequential compactness are equivalent.