Compact Textbooks in Mathematics

Compact Textbooks in Mathematics

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More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11225

Christian Clason

Introduction to
Functional Analysis
Christian Clason
Fakultät für Mathematik
Universität Duisburg-Essen
Essen, Germany

ISSN 2296-4568 ISSN 2296-455X (electronic)

Compact Textbooks in Mathematics
ISBN 978-3-030-52783-9 ISBN 978-3-030-52784-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52784-6

Mathematics Subject Classification: 46-01

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Translation from the German language edition: “Einführung in die Funktionalanalysis” by Christian
Clason, © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. Published by Springer International Publishing. All
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Preface

Functional analysis is the continuation of linear algebra by

other means.

The development of functional analysis in the early twentieth century was motivated
by the desire for general results on the solvability of differential equations. Instead
of solving concrete differential equations like f  + f = g for a given g by specific
techniques, people wanted to know which properties of a differential equation or
a right-hand side g were necessary for such a solution to exist. The crucial insight
here was to consider functions as points in a vector space, on which the mapping
D : f → f  + f defines a linear differential operator. A similar step from
concrete systems of linear equations to the abstract linear equation Ax = b for
a matrix A and a vector b is the basis of linear algebra. The question was then
about the properties of D required for unique solvability of Df = g, in analogy
to the injectivity and surjectivity of A or the absence of 0 as an eigenvalue of A.
Here, the main difficulty lies in the fact that many of the fundamental results of
linear algebra are based on the finite-dimensionality of the involved vector spaces
(e.g., using the rank-nullity theorem). However, this is no longer the case for vector
spaces of functions, and it becomes necessary to consider these algebraic concepts
in combination with topological concepts such as convergence and compactness.
One of the central themes of this book is to work out which algebraic, metric,
topological, and geometric properties can serve as substitutes for the missing finite-
dimensionality, and what role precisely these play for the individual results. The fact
that this combination leads to extremely rich structures is what makes functional
analysis so appealing and has led to it becoming an essential foundation for modern
applied mathematics, from the theory and numerical solution of partial differential
equations, through optimization and probability theory, to medical imaging and
mathematical image processing.
The contents of this book correspond exactly to those of 26 lectures of 90 min
each (of which not too many should fall on a public holiday) in the fourth semester
of a bachelor’s program in mathematics; it therefore cannot and is not supposed
v
vi Preface

to be a substitute for more comprehensive textbooks such as [7, 15, 22, 29–31]
or the more recent [3, 23] (which are closer to the aims of this book). Its aim is
rather to present a concise, streamlined, and rigorous development of the essential
structural results that are important in particular throughout applied mathematics
and thus build a solid foundation for mathematical lectures on the above-mentioned
topics. All further results (e.g., on quotient spaces or Fredholm operators) are treated
only insofar as they are needed or are useful for significantly simplifying a proof.
After the tight corset of a lecture had been removed, many more beautiful results
could have been included; this temptation was resisted. Readers are therefore certain
to miss a favorite result; a particularly conspicuous gap is details on Lebesgue
and Sobolev spaces, which are left to lectures on measure and integration theory
(e.g., based on [5, Chapters XII and XIII]) and on partial differential equations,
respectively. (A nice treatment can also be found in [3].)
The structure of the book as well is based on the desire to draw as clear and direct
a line as possible to the main results. To this end, as far as possible, related topics
are treated together, and more general results are exploited that are to be proved
anyway. This leads to numerous dependencies but is likely in the spirit of functional
analysis as an abstract structural theory (motivated by application in other branches
of mathematics). Of course, some freedom remains even under these constraints
that others might have used differently, in particular for an earlier treatment of
Hilbert spaces. Specifically, it is possible to cover Chap. 15 directly after Chap. 3,
with the exception of the Lax–Milgram theorem (Theorem 15.11, which requires
Corollary 9.8) and the Fischer–Riesz theorem (Corollary 15.16, which requires
the concept of isomorphism from Chap. 4). Chapter 16 requires the Hahn–Banach
theorem (Theorem 8.1); the concept of a Hilbert-space adjoint operator is here
defined via that of the (Banach space) adjoint operator but could also be introduced
independently. Finally, Chap. 17 continues seamlessly from Chap. 14.
The chosen arrangement also corresponds to the mathematical tradition of
presenting a theory without any reference to its historical development. This often
allows a clearer view of the central structures and a concentration on concepts that
have proven to be particularly fruitful. Conversely, one risks losing sight of the
fact that these structures and concepts were developed by people who now only
appear as eponyms for theorems. In particular, those are neglected who in initial
phases produced groundbreaking results that were later subsumed in more general
statements. This is especially true for functional analysis, which was brought to
essentially the state as presented here by a comparatively small number of people
within a few decades (between about 1900 and 1940). Rather than overloading this
book with (even more) footnotes, the reader is referred to the literature on this point.
An extensive account of the history of functional analysis can be found in [9], a short
summary of which is contained (and more easily available) as an appendix in [2].
The development of the results treated in this book is described more accessibly—
and more conversationally—in [12, Part XIX]. An even more extensive account up
Preface vii

to the present is given in [18]; this work also contains a detailed chronology as
well as numerous quotations from and references to original works that are often
still worth reading. Historical and biographical remarks can also be found in the
appendices to the individual chapters of [28] (which are also worth reading).
This book is based mainly on [1, 4, 14, 27, 28], which are also recommended for
supplemental reading. Thanks are due to Martin Brokate and Gerd Wachsmuth for
their lecture notes and for helpful comments, Otmar Scherzer and Anton Schiela
for helpful comments as well, and Remo Kretschmann for help with the exercises.
Finally, David P. Kramer’s expert copy-editing was much appreciated.

Essen, Germany Christian Clason

May 2020
Contents

Part I Topological Basics

1 Metric Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 Compact Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Part II Linear Operators Between Normed Spaces

3 Normed Vector Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4 Linear Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5 The Uniform Boundedness Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6 Quotient Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Part III Dual Spaces and Weak Convergence

7 Linear Functionals and Dual Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
8 The Hahn–Banach Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
9 Adjoint Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10 Reflexivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
11 Weak Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Part IV Compact Operators Between Banach Spaces

12 Compact Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
13 The Fredholm Alternative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
14 The Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

ix
x Contents

Part V Hilbert Spaces

15 Inner Products and Orthogonality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
16 The Riesz Representation Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
17 Spectral Decomposition in Hilbert Spaces . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

References .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Index . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167