Abstract

This first section of the notes will deal with the the introductory chapter of Saxes book Beginning
Functional Analysis. This chapter concerns itself primarily with the basic definitions including what a
metric space is, norms, some examples of sequence and function spaces, and a discussion on dimension.

Notes 1: Introduction and Definitions

Definition 0.1. Inner product space - an mathematical structure with the same general properties of
Euclidean space IE:
1. A metric which defines distance between two points.
2. A way of determining orthogonality.
A simple example of this is the metric describing Euclidean distance in Rn :
v
u n
uX
d(x, y) = t (xi yi )2 xi , yi Rn (1)
i=1

Definition 0.2. A metric space is denoted as (M, d) is a set M along with a function d : M M R
which satisfies:
1. d(x, y) 0x, y M
2. d(x, y) = 0 x = y
3. d(x, y) = d(y, x)x, y M
4. d(x, y) d(x, z) + d(z, y)x, y, z M
Two examples of metrice spaces are the field of complex numbers where d(x, y) = |x y|. Another
example is a discrete metric such as: (
1 if x 6= y
d(x, y) =
0 if x = y
This notion of a metric space has several uses in proofs. For instance, we might use the definition of a
metric to show that a sequence {xn }
n=1 in a metric space (M, d) is said to converge to element x M if:

{ > 0; N Z+ : d(xn , x) <  when n N }

Note. This is the typical form of the convergence proofs for the methods I am testing.
Definition 0.3. Continuity for a function f is defined on a metric space (M, dM ) and taking values in
another metric space (N, dN ) at a point x0 M if for any given  > 0 there exists some > 0 such that:

dn (f (x), f (x0 )) <  whenever dM (x, x0 ) < (2)

Definition 0.4. Many (but not all, see next point) metrics arise from the concept of a norm. A normed
linear space (V, || ||) is a linear space V with a function denoted as || || : V R is a norm if it satisfies
four conditions:
1. ||v|| 0 v V
nonnegativity
2. ||v|| = 0 v = 0
nondegeneracy
3. ||v|| = ||||v|| v, V
multiplicativity
4. ||v + w|| ||v|| + ||w|| v, w V
triangle inequality
Some examples of normed linear spaces include the linear space V equipped with the absolute value norm
|x|. Another is the Euclidean norm we learn in elementary school. A third example is ||xn || which just
gives the maximum element of the vector xn .
Theorem 0.1. If (V, || ||) is a normed space and d(v, w) by

d(v, w) = ||v w||

then d is a metric on V

1
Proof. Validation of this quality is performed by showing that the qualitites for norms lead necessarily to
the qualities of a metric:
The quality of nonnegativity is held for both metrics, and norms.
Nondegeneracy is held between the two structures.
||x + y|| = ||y + x||
The triangle inequality holds for both structures.
Therefore, all norms yield a metric.

However, as mentioned, not all metrics are norms:

Proof. For instance, the discrete metric described earlier does not qualify as a norm. Consider the third
quality ||v|| = ||||v||. For any value of 6= 1, it fails. For instance, if = 5, v = 2:
||5 2|| = 1 6= |5| ||2||
Therefore, the discrete metric is not a norm.

Another important definition is that of an inner product which gives rise to many types of norms:
Definition 0.5. An inner product space is a liear space (R or C) with a function denoted h, i : V V
R or C which satisfies the first three requirements for norms including two other requirements:
Symetry:hv, wi = hw, vi Note that in the case that if we are dealing with a vector space of C symetry
becomes Hermitian symetry:
hv, wi = hw, vi
where the bar represents the complex conjugate v, w V .
Distributivity:hv, w + zi = hw, vi + hw, zi
Theorem 0.2. Inner products are related to norms through the equality:
p
||v|| = hv, vi
However, not all norms have an inner product associate with them. We can determine whether they do
or not using the parallelogram equality:
Definition 0.6. The parallelogram equality is:
2||u||2 + 2||v||2 = ||u + v||2 + ||u v||2
This law states that the sum of squares for the lengths of two diagonals for a parallelogram is twice the
sum of the squares for the sides.
Next, is the bread and butter of functional analysis proof: Cauchy-Schwartz:
Theorem 0.3. For inner product space (V, h, i), the following inequality holds:
q q
| hv, wi | hv, vi hw, wi

Alternatively, this can be phrased in terms of the norm associated with the inner product space:
||v + w|| ||v||||w|| (3)
Proof. The simplest proof occurs in R and employs the quadratic equation. For nonzero elements of a real
inner product space x, y V , and real number :
||x + y, x + y|| = 2 ||x, x|| + 2||x, y|| + ||y, y|| (4)
Assume:
a = ||x, x||
b = ||x, y||
c = ||y, y||
Which makes the equation above:
||x + y, x + y|| = 2 a2 + 2b + c (5)
b
This equation is a quadratic equation with a minimum 2a
which is nonnegative. Therefore:

b 2 b b2
a( ) + b( )+c or c (6)
2a 2a 4a
Which translates to:
||y, y||
(||x, y||)2 (7)
4||x, x||

2
0.1 Sequence Space, Function Space, and `p Norms
The definitions regarding norm are now discussed in context to a slightly different topic:
Definition 0.7. A sequence space is a linear space composed of sequnces existing in R or C where addition
and multiplication are defined pointwise.
The definition of a sequence space flows into a more immediately useful concept:
Definition 0.8. An `p space is a space consisting of all sequences {xn }
n=1 :

X
|xn |p <
n=1

Which have a normed defined as:

X
1
||xn || = |xn |p p

n=1
Note that with these qualities that `p becomes a normed linear space.
An important question is which of the `p norms satisfies the the parallelogram equality and therefore has
an associated inner product? As it turns out the only case for this is the `2 norm which becomes:

X
hx, yi = xn yn x, y R
n=1
X
hx, yi = xn yn x, y R
n=1

Definition 0.9. A function space is a linear space consisting of functions where addition and scalar (both
R and C) multiplication are defined.
One definition of a linear space is as follows: Let [a, b] be a closed, bounded interval with:

V = {f : [a, b] RB 0 : |f (x)| B x [a, b]}


Then there is an associated subspace called the space of continuous functions:

{f : [a, b] R|f is continuous}
For brevity, this is denoted as C([a, b]). There are also equivalents for once and twice differentiable functions
C 1 ([a, b]) and C 2 ([a, b]).
Another worthwhile note is that on each sequence and function space there exists a norm which therefore
means that any function space is a metric space.
In the case of the `2 norm mentioned earlier, C([a, b]) becomes an inner product space with inner product:
Z b
hf, gi = f (x)g(x)dx x, y R
a
Z b
hf, gi =
f (x)g(x)dx x, y R
a

Another metric we may define for C([a, b]) is the supremum function which denotes the largest value
between two functions. 
d(f, g) = ||f g|| = sup{|f (x) g(x)|x [a, b]}

0.2 Dimensionality
An n dimensional space denoted as Rn has a basis which can be given by a collection of vectors:
e1 = (1, 0, . . . , 0)
e2 = (0, 1, . . . , 0)
..
.
en = (0, 0, . . . , 1)
n
To review: a basis in R means that a set of vectors satisfy the conditions below:
1. Linear independence: For all 1 , 2 , ..., n R the linear combination of vectors:

X
i ei = 0 1 = 2 = = n = 0
i=1

2. The vectors span Rn ; en Rn can be written as a linear combination of the basis vectors.
Definition 0.10. A linear space is n-dimensional if the largest value of n exists.
Definition 0.11. A linear space is infinite dimensional if for any positive integer n there exists a linearly
independent subset containing n-elements.