Chapter 3

Almost Periodic Functions

with Values in a Linear
Topological Space

This chapter is devoted to almost periodicity in general linear topo-

logical spaces as presented in [29] and[30]. We assume that the reader
is acquainted with elementary properties of numerical almost periodic
functions (cf. [8], [39],[43], for instance). We will use the results to
study almost periodicity of solutions of differential equations in locally
convex spaces in Chapter 7.

3.1 Almost periodic functions

Definition 3.1.1 Let E = E(T) be a complete Hausdorff locally con-
vex space. A continuous function f : lR --+ E is said to be almost
periodic if for each neighborhood of the origin U there exists a real
number £ > 0 such that every interval [a, a + £] contains at least one
point s such that
f(t + s) - .f(t) E U, for every t E JR.

The numbers s depend on U and are called U-translation numbers or

U -almost periods of the function .f.
Remark 3.1.2

51

G. M. N’Guerekata, Almost Automorphic and Almost Periodic Functions in Abstract Spaces

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2001
52 Gaston M. N'Guerekata

i) From Definition 3.1.1, we observe that for each neighborhood of

the origin U, the set of U-translation numbers is relatively dense
in JR.

ii) It is obvious that every periodic function over lR is almost peri-

odic.

We now present some elementary properties of almost periodic func-

tions taking values in locally convex spaces.

Theorem 3.1.3 Iff : lR --+ E is almost periodic, then the functions

>..f (>..is any scalar) and jV : lR--+ E defined by jV(t) = f(-t), are
also almost periodic.

Proof: >..f is obviously almost periodic. To prove that jV is almost

periodic, let U be a neighborhood of the origin. By almost periodicity
of f, there exists f. > 0 such that every interval [a, a + f.] contains at
least a point s such that

f(t + s)- f(t) E U, for every t E JR.

If we put r = -t, we get:

r(r- s)- r(r) = f(-r + s)- f(-r) = f(t + s)- f(t).

Therefore jV (r - s) - jV (r) E U for every r E IR, which proves almost

periodicity of jV with -s as U-translation numbers. D

Theorem 3.1.4 i} Iff : lR--+ E is an almost periodic function, then

f is uniformly continuous.
ii} If Un) is a sequence of almost periodic functions, fn : lR --+ E,
n = 1, 2, 3, ... such that Un) converges uniformly to f on IR, then f is
also almost periodic.

Proof: We leave this to the reader. D

Theorem 3.1.5 Iff : lR--+ E is almost periodic, then its range {f(t) :
t E IR} is totally bounded in E.