MTL 411: Functional Analysis

Lecture C: Open mapping theorem and Closed-graph theorem

Let (X, d) and (Y, ρ) be metric spaces.

Definition 0.1. (continuous) We say that a function f : X → Y is continuous on X if for

every open set U in Y , the inverse image f −1 (U ) is open in X, i.e., the inverse image of an
open set is open. Equivalently, the inverse image of a closed is closed (why?).

Definition 0.2. (Open map) We say that a function f : X → Y is open if for every open
set G in X, the image f (G) is open in Y , i.e., the image of an open set is open.

Definition 0.3. (Closed map) We say that a function f : X → Y is closed if for every closed
set F in X, the image f (F ) is closed in Y , i.e., the image of an closed set is closed.

Remarks.

1. A continuous map need not be open/closed. For example, consider the map x 7→ sin x
from (0, π) to R. [Hint. See the image of the interval (0, π)]

2. An open, continuous map need not be closed, even if it is onto. For example, consider
the projection map P (x, y) = x from R2 to R. [Hint. Use {(x, y) ∈ R2 : xy = 1}]

3. An closed, continuous map need not be open, even if it is onto. For example, consider
the map x 7→ cos x from [0, 2π] to [−1, 1].

4. Similarly, we can construct functions which are open/closed need not be continuous.

We will see that if a linear operator from a Banach space to a Banach space is continuous
and surjective, then it is open map. This result play a important role to explain the sufficient
condition to get a bounded inverse of an operator.
Notations:

1. BX (x0 , r) = {x ∈ X : ||x − x0 || < r} is an open ball centered at x0 with radius r in X.

2. BX (x0 , r) + z := {x + z : x ∈ BX (x0 , r)} where z ∈ X.

It is easy to verify that BX (0, r) + x0 = BX (x0 , r).

3. c BX (x0 , r) := {cx : x ∈ BX (x0 , r)} where c is scalar.

It is easy to verify that BX (0, r) = rBX (0, 1).

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1 Open Mapping Theorem
Lemma 1.1 (Open unit ball). Suppose T is a bounded linear operator from a Banach space
X onto a Banach space Y . Then BY (0, r) ⊂ T (BX (0, 1)) for some r > 0.

Proof. Claim 1. BY (y0 , δ) ⊂ T (BX (0, 12 )) for some δ > 0.

We can write
[∞ ∞
[
k
X= BX (0, 2 ) = k BX (0, 12 ). (∵ x ∈ X, ||x|| ≤ k2 , for some k.)
k=1 k=1

Thus,
∞
[ ∞
[
T (X) = T (k BX (0, 12 )) = k T (BX (0, 12 )) (∵ T is linear)
k=1 k=1
[∞ [∞
=⇒ Y = k T (BX (0, 21 )) = k T (BX (0, 12 )). (∵ T is onto)
k=1 k=1

Since Y is a Banach space and using Baire’s category theorem, we get the interior of
k T (BX (0, 12 )) is non-empty for some k. Therefore, the interior of T (BX (0, 12 )) is non-empty,
that is, there exists a y0 ∈ Y and δ > 0 such that

BY (y0 , δ) ⊂ T (BX (0, 12 )).

Claim 2. BY (0, 2δn ) ⊂ T (BX (0, 21n )) for all n ≥ 0.

It is enough to show that for n = 0, BY (0, δ) ⊂ T (BX (0, 1) (why ?).
Let y ∈ BY (0, δ). Then y + y0 ∈ BY (y0 , δ) ⊂ T (BX (0, 12 )).
By definition of closure of a set,
∃ un ∈ T (BX (0, 21 )), wn ∈ BX (0, 21 ) such that T (wn ) = un → y + y0 ,
and ∃ vn ∈ T (BX (0, 21 )), zn ∈ BX (0, 12 ) such that T (zn ) = vn → y0 .
From this we get un − vn = T (wn − zn ) → y. Notice that ||wn − zn || < 1, so we get
y ∈ T (BX (0, 1). Therefore, we get
BY (0, δ) ⊂ T (BX (0, 1).
Claim 3. BY (0, 2δ ) ⊂ T (BX (0, 1).
Let y ∈ BY (0, 2δ ). Then by the above claim 2, y ∈ T (BX (0, 12 )). So there exists x1 ∈
BX (0, 21 ) such that
||y − T x1 || < 4δ .
Now y − T x1 ∈ BY (0, 4δ ). Again by the above claim 2, y − T x1 ∈ T (BX (0, 14 )). So there exists
x2 ∈ BX (0, 14 ) such that
||y − T x1 − T x2 || < 2δ3 .
By repeating this procedure and using induction, we get a sequence xn ∈ BX (0, 21n ) such that
n
X
δ
||y − T xk || < 2n+1
. (1.1)
k=1
Pn Pn 1
Define zn = k=1 xk . Then ||zn − zm || ≤ k=m+1 2k is Cauchy sequence in X. Since
X is a Banach space, {zn } converges to a element x ∈ X and ||x|| < 1 (why ?). From
the equation (1.1), we have T zn → y. Since T is continuous, we get T x = y. Therefore,
y ∈ T (BX (0, 1).

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Theorem 1.2 (Open mapping theorem). Suppose T is a bounded linear operator from a
Banach space X onto a Banach space Y . Then T is an open map.

Proof. Let G be a open subset of X. We have to show that T (G) is open in Y .

Let y ∈ T (G). Then we have a x ∈ G such that T x = y. Since G is open, there exists a
 > 0 such that BX (x, ) ⊂ G. Thus
BX (0, ) ⊂ G − x.
By the above open map lemma, there exists a δ > 0 such that
BY (0, δ) ⊂ T (BX (0, 1)).
=⇒ BY (0, δ) ⊂  T (BX (0, 1)) = T (BX (0, ))
⊂ T (G − x) = T (G) − T x = T (G) − y. [∵ T is linear]
So we get BY (0, δ) + y ⊂ T (G). Therefore, y is an interior point of T (G). Hence T (G) is
open in Y .

2 Bounded Inverse theorem

Let X and Y be normed linear spaces, and T : X → Y a linear operator. Then we have
N (T ) = {0} ⇐⇒ T is injective ⇐⇒ T −1 : R(T ) → X exists.
Definition 2.1. We say that a linear operator T : X → Y is bounded below if there exists a
constant α > 0 such that
||T x|| ≥ α||x||, ∀x ∈ X.
Proposition 2.2. Let T be a linear operator from a normed linear space X to a normed
linear space Y . Then the following are equivalent:

(a) T is bounded below.

(b) T −1 : R(T ) → X exists and bounded.
Further, if T ∈ B[X, Y ] and if X is a Banach space, then each of the above equivalent
assertions implies that R(T ) = R(T ).

Proof. (a) =⇒ (b)

Since T is bounded below, we have N (T ) = {0} (why?). So T −1 : R(T ) → X exists. To
show that T −1 is bounded, for y ∈ R(T ), there is a vector x ∈ X such that T x = y. Thus
||T −1 y|| = ||T −1 T x|| = ||x||
1
≤ α ||T x|| = α1 ||y||, ∀y ∈ Y.

(b) =⇒ (a) Exercise.

In addition to equivalent assertions, if T ∈ B[X, Y ] and X is a Banach space, then we
show that the range of T is closed.
Let z ∈ R(T ). Then there exists a sequence yn ∈ R(T ) such that yn → z in Y . We have
to show that z ∈ R(T ).
For each n ∈ N, there exists xn ∈ X such that T xn = yn . Consider
1
||xn − xm || ≤ α ||T xn − T xm || = ||yn − ym || (n, m ∈ N).
Since {yn } is a Cauchy, we get {xn } is Cauchy in X. As X is a Banach space, {xn } converges
to some vector x ∈ X. This implies that T xn = yn converges to T x. Hence T x = z.

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Remark. If X is not complete then the above conclusion may not be true. For example,
consider the identity operator I(x) = x from (c00 , || · ||∞ ) to `∞ space. Then I is isometry
(in particular, I is bounded below) but the range of I is not closed in `∞ .

Theorem 2.3 (Bounded inverse theorem). If X and Y are Banach spaces and T ∈ B[X, Y ]
is injective and surjective, then T −1 ∈ B[Y, X].

Proof. We know that the linear operator T −1 : Y → X exists since that T is bijective and
linear. Now we have to show that T −1 is continuous. Equivalently, the inverse image of an
open set is open, i.e., for each open set G in X, the inverse image (T −1 )−1 (G) = T (G) is
open in Y which is same as proving T is open map. Thus the result follows from the open
mapping theorem.

Corollary 2.4. If X and Y are Banach spaces and T ∈ B[X, Y ] is bounded below, then
T −1 ∈ B[R(T ), X].

3 Closed graph theorem

In this section, we introduce closed linear operators which appears more frequently in the ap-
plication. In particular, most of the practical applications we encounter unbounded operators
which are closed linear operators.

Definition 3.1. Let X and Y be normed spaces. Then a linear operator T : X → Y is said
to be closed operator if for every sequence {xn } in X such that

xn → x and T xn → y =⇒ T x = y.

Equivalent definition: Define a normed space X × Y , where the two algebraic operations
are defined as,

(x1 , y1 ) + (x2 , y2 ) = (x1 + x2 , y1 + y2 )

α(x, y) = (αx, αy),

and the norm on X × Y is defined by

||(x, y)|| = ||x|| + ||y||.

Then a linear operator T : X → Y is closed operator if the graph of T ,

G(T ) = {(x, T x) : x ∈ X} is closed in X × Y.
Exercises.

1. With above defined norm, show that X × Y is a Banach space whenever X and Y are
Banach spaces.

2. Show that the above two definitions are equivalent.

3. Show that the graph G(T ) is a subspace of X × Y.

Example. Consider the differential operator T : f 7→ f 0 from (C 1 [a, b], || · ||∞ ) to (C[a, b], || ·
||∞ ). We know that the operator is not continuous (why?). Now we show that the operator
is closed using uniform convergence property. Let {(fn , fn0 )} be a sequence in G(T ) such that

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(fn ) converges to f and fn0 converges to g in sup-norm. We have to show that g = f 0 . Using
fundamental theorem integral calculus, we write
Zx
fn (x) = fn (a) + fn0 (t) dt
a
Zx
f (x) = f (a) + g(t) dt (as n → ∞; limit and integral can be interchanged ?)
a

The result follows by fundamental theorem of integral calculus.

Remark. Continuous linear operator =⇒ Closed linear operator.
The converse is not true (see the above example). Under certain conditions, the converse
is true which is stated as

Theorem 3.2 (Closed graph theorem). If X and Y are Banach spaces and T : X → Y is
linear operator, then
T is continuous ⇐⇒ T is closed.

Proof. If T is continuous, then T is closed (verify!).

Conversely, suppose T is a closed operator. Then the graph of T , G(T ) is closed in X ×Y .
Moreover, it is a subspace and so it is a complete space.
Define P : G(T ) → X by P (x, T x) = x. It is easy to verify that P is continuous, injective
and surjective. By bounded inverse theorem, P −1 : X → G(T ) is continuous, that is,

||P −1 (x)|| ≤ c||x||, ∀x ∈ X

for some c > 0. Hence T is bounded because of

||T x|| ≤ ||T x|| + ||x|| = ||(x, T x)|| = ||P −1 (x)|| ≤ c||x||, ∀x ∈ X.

Exercises.

1. Let X = c00 be the normed space with sup-norm. Let T : X → X be defined by

T x = (x1 , x22 , x33 , . . .), x = (xn ).

Show that T is linear and bounded but T −1 is unbounded. Does this contradict bounded
inverse theorem?

2. Show that the null space N (T ) of a closed linear operator T : X → Y is a closed

subspace of X.

3. Suppose T is a bounded linear operator on a Banach Space X with ||I − T || < 1, where
I denotes the identity operator on X. Then show that T −1 exists and it is bounded
operator on X.

4. Let (X, || · ||X ) and (Y, || · ||Y ) be Banach spaces and T : X → Y be a surjective linear
operator from X onto Y such that

∃ c > 0 ∀x ∈ X : ||T x||Y ≥ c ||x||X .

Then T is bounded.

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5. Let (X, k · k) be a Banach space with Schauder basis {xn , n ≥ 1}. Let Y be the
X∞
vector space consisting of those sequences of scalars (cn ) for which the series cn xn
n=1
is convergent in X. Define k(cn )kY = sup k nk=1 ck xk k for (cn ) ∈ Y.
P
n≥1

(a) Show that the function k · kY defines a norm on Y .

(b) Define the linear mapping T : Y → X by T ((cn )) = ∞
P
n=1 cn xn . Show that T is
bijective and continuous, and further T −1 is continuous.
(c) For n ∈ N, x = ∞
P
k=1 ck xk ∈ X, define the linear (coefficient) functional fn (x) =
cn . Prove that the linear functional fn is continuous on X.