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A FIRST COURSE IN
FUNCTIONAL
ANALYSIS
A FIRST COURSE IN
FUNCTIONAL
ANALYSIS
ORR MOSHE SHALIT

Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa, Israel
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2017 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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Version Date: 20170215
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Names: Shalit, Orr Moshe.

Title: A first course in functional analysis / Orr Moshe Shalit.
Description: Boca Raton : CRC Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016045930| ISBN 9781498771610 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781315367132 (ebook) | ISBN 9781498771627 (ebook) | ISBN 9781498771641 (ebook)
| ISBN 9781315319933 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Functional analysis--Textbooks.
Classification: LCC QA320 .S45927 2016 | DDC 515/.7--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016045930
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

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and the CRC Press Web site at

http://www.crcpress.com
To my mother and my father, Malka and Meir Shalit
Contents
Preface xi
1 Introduction and the Stone-Weierstrass theorem 1
1.1 Background and motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 The Weierstrass approximation theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 The Stone-Weierstrass theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 The Stone-Weierstrass theorem over the complex numbers . 8
1.5 Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6 Additional exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 Hilbert spaces 13
2.1 Background and motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.2 The basic definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 Completion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 The space of Lebesgue square integrable functions . . . . . . 21
3 Orthogonality, projections, and bases 29
3.1 Orthogonality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2 Orthogonal projection and orthogonal decomposition . . . . 30
3.3 Orthonormal bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.4 Dimension and isomorphism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.5 The Gram-Schmidt process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4 Fourier series 45
4.1 Fourier series in L2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

4.2 Pointwise convergence of Fourier series (Dirichlet’s theorem) 50
4.3 Fejér’s theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.4 *Proof of Dirichlet’s theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
vii
viii Contents
5 Bounded linear operators on Hilbert space 61
5.1 Bounded operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

5.2 Linear functionals and the Riesz representation theorem . . . 64
5.3 *The Dirichlet problem for the Laplace operator . . . . . . . 65
5.4 The adjoint of a bounded operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.5 Special classes of operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.6 Matrix representation of operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6 Hilbert function spaces 83
6.1 Reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

6.2 *The Bergman space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.3 *Additional topics in Hilbert function space theory . . . . . 91
7 Banach spaces 103
7.1 Banach spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

7.2 Bounded operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
7.3 The dual space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7.4 *Topological vector spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
8 The algebra of bounded operators on a Banach space 119
8.1 The algebra of bounded operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

8.2 An application to ergodic theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
8.3 Invertible operators and inverses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
8.4 *Isomorphisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
9 Compact operators 137
9.1 Compact operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

9.2 The spectrum of a compact operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
10 Compact operators on Hilbert space 145
10.1 Finite rank operators on Hilbert space . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

10.2 The spectral theorem for compact self-adjoint operators . . . 146
10.3 The spectral theorem for compact normal operators . . . . . 150
10.4 The functional calculus for compact normal operators . . . . 152
Contents ix
11 Applications of the theory of compact operators 161
11.1 Integral equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

11.2 *Functional equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
12 The Fourier transform 177
12.1 The spaces Lp (R), p ∈ [1, ∞) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

12.2 The Fourier transform on L1 (R) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
12.3 The Fourier transform on L2 (R) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
12.4 *Shannon’s sampling theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
12.5 *The multivariate Fourier transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
13 *The Hahn-Banach theorems 201
13.1 The Hahn-Banach theorems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

13.2 The dual space, the double dual, and duality . . . . . . . . . 209
13.3 Quotient spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
13.4 Additional excercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Appendix A Metric and topological spaces 217
A.1 Metric spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

A.2 Completeness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
A.3 Topological spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
A.4 The Arzelà-Ascoli theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Symbol Description 233
Bibliography 235
Index 237
Preface
In a nutshell
The purpose of this book is to serve as the accompanying text for a first
course in functional analysis, taken typically by second- and third-year under-
graduate students majoring in mathematics.
As I prepared for my first time teaching such a course, I found nothing
among the countless excellent textbooks in functional analysis available that
perfectly suited my needs. I ended up writing my own lecture notes, which
evolved into this book (an earlier version appeared on my blog [31]).
The main goals of the course this book is designed to serve are to in-
troduce the student to key notions in functional analysis (complete normed
spaces, bounded operators, compact operators), alongside significant applica-
tions, with a special emphasis on the Hilbert space setting. The emphasis on
Hilbert spaces allows for a rapid development of several topics: Fourier series
and the Fourier transform, as well as the spectral theorem for compact normal
operators on a Hilbert space. I did not try to give a comprehensive treatment
of the subject, the opposite is true. I did my best to arrange the material in
a coherent and effective way, leaving large portions of the theory for a later
course. The students who finish this course will be ready (and hopefully, ea-
ger) for further study in functional analysis and operator theory, and will have
at their disposal a set of tools and a state of mind that may come in handy
in any mathematical endeavor they embark on.
The text is written for a reader who is either an undergraduate student,
or the instructor in a particular kind of undergraduate course on functional
analysis. The background required from the undergraduate student taking this
course is minimal: basic linear algebra, calculus up to Riemann integration,
and some acquaintance with topological and metric spaces (in fact, the basics
of metric spaces will suffice; and all the required material in topology/metric
spaces is collected in the appendix).
Some “mathematical maturity” is also assumed. This means that the read-
ers are expected to be able to fill in some details here and there, not freak out
when bumping into a slight abuse of notation, and so forth.
More details on the contents and on some choices made

This book is tailor-made to accompany the course Introduction to Func-
tional Analysis given at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology. The
xi
xii Preface
official syllabus of the course is roughly: basic notions of Hilbert spaces and
Banach spaces, bounded operators, Fourier series and the Fourier transform,
the Stone-Weierstrass theorem, the spectral theorem for compact normal op-
erators on a Hilbert space, and some applications. A key objective, not less
important than the particular theorems taught, is to convey some underlying
principles of modern analysis.
The design was influenced mainly by the official syllabus, but I also took
into account the relative place of the course within the curriculum. The back-
ground that I could assume (mentioned above) did not include courses on
Lebesgue integration or complex analysis. Another thing to keep in mind was
that besides this course, there was no other course in the mathematics un-
dergraduate curriculum giving a rigorous treatment of Fourier series or the
Fourier transform. I therefore had to give these topics a respectable place in
class. Finally, I also wanted to keep in mind that students who will continue
on to graduate studies in analysis will take the department’s graduate course
on functional analysis, in which the Hahn-Banach theorems and the conse-
quences of Baire’s theorem are treated thoroughly. This allowed me to omit
these classical topics with a clean conscience, and use my limited time for
a deeper study in the context of Hilbert spaces (weak convergence, inverse
mapping theorem, spectral theorem for compact normal operators), including
some significant applications (PDEs, Hilbert functions spaces, Pick interpo-
lation, the mean ergodic theorem, integral equations, functional equations,
Fourier series and the Fourier transform).
An experienced and alert reader might have recognized the inherent pitfall
in the plan: how can one give a serious treatment of L2 spaces, and in particular
the theory of Fourier series and the Fourier transform, without using the
Lebesgue integral? This is a problem which many instructors of introductory
functional analysis face, and there are several solutions which can be adopted.
In some departments, the problem is eliminated altogether, either by mak-
ing a course on Lebesgue integration a prerequisite to a course on functional
analysis, or by keeping the introductory course on functional analysis free of
Lp spaces, with the main examples of Banach spaces being sequence spaces
or spaces of continuous functions. I personally do not like either of these easy
solutions. A more pragmatic solution is to use the Lebesgue integral as much
as is needed, and to compensate for the students’ background by either giving
a crash course on Lebesgue integration or by waving one’s hands where the
going gets tough.
I chose a different approach: hit the problem head on using the tools avail-
able in basic functional analysis. I define the space L2 [a, b] to be the completion
of the space of piecewise continuous functions on [a, b] equipped with the norm
Rb
kf k2 = ( a |f (t)|2 dt)1/2 , which is defined in terms of the familiar Riemann in-
tegral. We can then use the Hilbert space framework to derive analytic results,
such as convergence of Fourier series of elements in L2 [a, b], and in particular
we can get results on Fourier series for honest functions, such as L2 conver-
Preface xiii
gence for piecewise continuous functions, or uniform convergence for periodic

and C 1 functions.
Working in this fashion may seem clumsy when one is already used to
working with the Lebesgue integral, but, for many applications to analysis
it suffices. Moreover, it shows some of the advantages of taking a functional
analytic point of view. I did not invent the approach of defining Lp spaces as
completions of certain space of nice functions, but I think that this book is
unique in the extent to which the author really adheres to this approach: once
the spaces are defined this way, we never look back, and everything is done
with no measure theory.
To illustrate, in Section 8.2.2 we prove the mean ergodic theorem. A mea-
sure preserving composition operator on L2 [0, 1] is defined first on the dense
subspace of continuous functions, and then extended by continuity to the com-
pletion. The mean ergodic theorem is proved by Hilbert space methods, as a
nice application of some basic operator theory. The statement (see Theorem
8.2.5) in itself is significant and interesting even for piecewise continuous func-
tions — one does not need to know the traditional definition of L2 in order
to appreciate it.
Needless to say, this approach was taken because of pedagogical con-
straints, and I encourage all my students to take a course on measure the-
ory if they are serious about mathematics, especially if they are interested in
functional analysis. The disadvantages of the approach we take to L2 spaces
are highlighted whenever we stare them in the face; for example, in Section
5.3, where we obtain the existence of weak solutions to PDEs in the plane,
but fall short of showing that weak solutions are (in some cases) solutions in
the classical sense.
The choice of topics and their order was also influenced by my personal
teaching philosophy. For example, Hilbert spaces and operators on them are
studied before Banach spaces and operators on them. The reasons for this are
(a) I wanted to get to significant applications to analysis quickly, and (b)
I do not think that there is a point in introducing greater generality before
one can prove significant results in that generality. This is surely not the most
efficient way to present the material, but there are plenty of other books giving
elegant and efficient presentations, and I had no intention — nor any hope —
of outdoing them.
How to use this book

A realistic plan for teaching this course in the format given at the Technion
(13 weeks, three hours of lectures and one hour of exercises every week) is
to use the material in this book, in the order it appears, from Chapter 1
up to Chapter 12, skipping Chapters 6 and 11. In such a course, there is
often time to include a section or two from Chapters 6 or 11, as additional
illustrative applications of the theory. Going through the chapters in the order
xiv Preface
they appear, skipping chapters or sections that are marked by an asterisk,

gives more or less the version of the course that I taught.
In an undergraduate program where there is a serious course on harmonic
analysis, one may prefer to skip most of the parts on Fourier analysis (except
L2 convergence of Fourier series), and use the rest of the book as a basis for
the course, either giving more time for the applications, or by teaching the
material in Chapter 13 on the Hahn-Banach theorems. I view the chapter on
the Hahn-Banach theorems as the first chapter in further studies in functional
analysis. In the course that I taught, this topic was given as supplementary
reading to highly motivated and capable students.
There are exercises spread throughout the text, which the students are
expected to work out. These exercises play an integral part in the development
of the material. Additional exercises appear at the end of every chapter. I
recommend for the student, as well as the teacher, to read the additional
exercises, because some of them contain interesting material that is good to
know (e.g., Gibbs phenomenon, von Neumann’s inequality, Hilbert-Schmidt
operators). The teaching assistant will also find among the exercises some
material better suited for tutorials (e.g., the solution of the heat equation, or
the diagonalization of the Fourier transform). There is no solutions manual,
but I invite any instructor who uses this book to teach a course, to contact
me if there is an exercise that they cannot solve. With time I may gradually
compile a collection of solutions to the most difficult problems.
Some of the questions are original, most of them are not. Having been a
student and a teacher in functional and harmonic analysis for several years,
I have already seen many similar problems appearing in many places, and
some problems are so natural to ask that it does not seem appropriate to
try to trace who deserves credit for “inventing” them. I only give reference to
questions that I deliberately “borrowed” in the process of preparing this book.
The same goes for the body of the material: most of it is standard, and I see
no need to cite every mathematician involved; however, if a certain reference
influenced my exposition, credit is given.
The appendix contains all the material from metric and topological spaces
that is used in this book. Every once in while a serious student — typically
majoring in physics or electrical engineering — comes and asks if he or she can
take this course without having taken a course on metric spaces. The answer
is: yes, if you work through the appendix, there should be no problem.
Additional reading and alternative texts

There are countless good introductory texts on functional analysis and
operator theory, and the bibliography contains a healthy sample. As a student
and later as a teacher of functional analysis, I especially enjoyed and was
influenced by the books by Gohberg and Goldberg [12], Devito [6], Kadison
and Ringrose [16], Douglas [8], Riesz and Sz.-Nagy [26], Rudin [27], Arveson
[3], Reed and Simon [24], and Lax [18]. These are all recommended, but only
Preface xv
the first two are appropriate for a beginner. As a service to the reader, let me
mention three more recent elementary introductions to functional analysis,
by MacCluer [19], Hasse [13] and Eidelman, Milman and Tsolomitis [9]. Each
one of these looks like an excellent choice for a textbook to accompany a first
course.
I want to acknowledge that while working on the book I also
made extensive use of the Web (mostly Wikipedia, but also MathOver-
flow/StackExchange) as a handy reference, to make sure I got things right, e.g.,
verify that I am using commonly accepted terminology, find optimal phrasing
of a problem, etc.
Acknowledgments
This book could not have been written without the support, encourage-
ment and good advice of my beloved wife, Nohar. Together with Nohar, I feel
exceptionally lucky and thankful for our dear children: Anna, Tama, Gev, Em,
Shem, Asher and Sarah.
I owe thanks to many people for reading first drafts of these notes and
giving me feedback. Among them are Alon Gonen, Shlomi Gover, Ameer Kas-
sis, Amichai Lampert, Eliahu Levy, Daniel Markiewicz, Simeon Reich, Eli
Shamovich, Yotam Shapira, and Baruch Solel. I am sorry that I do not re-
member the names of all the students who pointed a mistake here or there, but
I do wish to thank them all. Shlomi Gover and Guy Salomon also contributed
a number of exercises. A special thank you goes to Michael Cwikel, Benjamin
Passer, Daniel Reem and Guy Salomon, who have read large portions of the
notes, found mistakes, and gave me numerous and detailed suggestions on how
to improve the presentation.
I bet that after all the corrections by friends and students, there are still
some errors here and there. Dear reader: if you find a mistake, please let
me know about it! I will maintain a page on my personal website (currently
http://oshalit.net.technion.ac.il) in which I will collect corrections.
I am grateful to Sarfraz Khan from CRC Press for contacting me and
inviting me to write a book. I wish to thank Sarfraz, together with Michele
Dimont the project editor, for being so helpful and kind throughout. I also
owe many thanks to Samar Haddad the proofreader, whose meticulous work
greatly improved the text.
My love for the subject and my point of view on it were strongly shaped by
my teachers, and in particular by Boris Paneah (my Master’s thesis advisor)
and Baruch Solel (my Ph.D. thesis advisor). If this book is any good, then
these men deserve much credit.
My parents, Malka and Meir Shalit, have raised me to be a man of books.
This one, my first, is dedicated to them.
Haifa, 2017
Chapter 1
Introduction and the
Stone-Weierstrass theorem
1.1 Background and motivation

Welcome to A First Course in Functional Analysis. What is functional
analysis? A short answer is that functional analysis is a language and frame-
work in which to formulate and study problems in analysis from an abstract
point of view. In this introductory chapter, we will try to give a more detailed
explanation of what is functional analysis. Along the way, we will prove the
first significant theorem in this book: the Stone-Weierstrass theorem.
Functional analysis was born around 1900, when the mathematical climate
was becoming suitable for an abstract and unified treatment of analytical
objects. Consider, for example, the following integral equation:
Z b
f (x) + k(t, x)f (t)dt = g(x). (1.1)
a
This equation was considered by I. Fredholm in 1903, and, like many important
mathematical problems of the time, it arose from mathematical physics. In
the equation above, the functions g ∈ CR ([a, b]) and k ∈ CR ([a, b] × [a, b]) are
given continuous functions, and f is an unknown function (here and below
CR (X) denotes the space of continuous, real-valued functions on a topological
space X). Fixing the function k, there are three basic questions one can ask
about such equations:
1. Solvability. Does there exist a continuous solution f to this equation
given g? For what g does a solution exist?
2. Uniqueness. Is the solution unique (when it exists)? Given a particular
solution to the equation, can we describe the space of all solutions, or
at least can we tell how “big” it is?
3. Method of solution. What is the solution? In other words, given g
can we write down a formula for the solution f , or at least describe a
method of obtaining f approximately?
Questions of a similar type are dealt with in a course in linear algebra,
1
2 A First Course in Functional Analysis
when considering a system of linear equations Ax = b, where x and b are

vectors in Rn , and A is an n × n matrix. There are many nontrivial things
to say regarding the solvability of the equation Ax = b which do not require
knowing the specific matrix A, for example: if the equation Ax = 0 has a
unique solution (namely, x = 0), then Ax = b has a unique solution for any
b ∈ Rn . In the same vein, one is interested not only in answering the above
three questions for the integral equation (1.1) given a particular k; it is also of
interest to understand the unifying characteristics of equations of this type.
One may develop an ad hoc theory of integral equations, but it is most
enlightening for us to put the above rather concrete equation in an abstract
and general framework. Historically as well as methodologically, this is the
starting point of functional analysis.
Let us try to force the above analytic problem into the framework of linear
algebra. First, we note that CR ([a, b]) is a real vector space. Next we notice,
following Fredholm, that the above equation can be written as (I + K)f = g,
where I : CR ([a, b]) → CR ([a, b]) is the identity operator and K : CR ([a, b]) →
CR ([a, b]) is the so-called integral operator
Z b
Kf (x) = k(t, x)f (t)dt.
a
Finally, we observe that the operator K, and hence I + K, is a linear operator.

Thus our problem is “just” that of solving a linear equation in the vector space
CR ([a, b]). However, these observations do not bring us much closer to being
able to answer the above questions; they only suggest that it might be fruitful
to study linear operators on infinite dimensional vector spaces.
Linear operators on infinite dimensional spaces turn out to be too large a
class to be treated in a meaningful manner. We will concentrate on the study
of continuous or compact operators acting on complete normed vector spaces.
In this setting significant results can be obtained; for example, in Chapter 9
we will see that the equation (I + K)f = g has a unique solution for any g,
if and only if the equation (I + K)f = 0 has a unique solution. Methods of
finding the solution will also be developed.
Note that, unlike in the case of a linear system of equations Ax = b, the
equation (1.1) makes sense within many different vector spaces. Would it be
easier to solve the problem if we assumed that all functions are differentiable?
The equation makes sense for integrable f — maybe we should consider I + K
as a linear operator on the larger space of all integrable functions, or maybe
on the space of square integrable functions? Do the basic properties of the
operator I + K change if we think of it as an operator on the bigger space?
We will see that considering the integral equation as an operator equation
in the space of square integrable functions on [a, b] does not change some
characteristic features of the problem, while on the other hand it facilitates
actually solving the problem.
The space of square integrable functions on an interval is an example of a
Hilbert space. Hilbert spaces are the infinite dimensional spaces that are closest
Introduction and the Stone-Weierstrass theorem 3
to finite dimensional spaces, and they are the most tractable. What makes
them so tractable are the fact that they have an inner product, and the fact
that they are complete metric spaces. In this book, a special emphasis is put
on Hilbert spaces, and in this setting integral equations are best understood.
We will begin our study of Hilbert spaces in the next chapter.
The goal of this book is to present a set of tools, ideas and results that
can be used to understand linear operators on infinite dimensional spaces.
But before we can develop a theory of linear operators on infinite dimensional
spaces, we must study the spaces themselves. We will have to wait until much
later in the book, before we can prove significant results on the solvability
of integral equations; in Chapter 11 we will complete our treatment of this
subject. For now, we part from equation (1.1), and we take a closer look at
the space CR ([a, b]).
1.2 The Weierstrass approximation theorem

In linear algebra one learns that every finite dimensional vector space has a
basis. This fact is incredibly useful, both conceptually and also from a practical
point of view; just consider how easy it is for us to think about Rn having at
hand the standard basis e1 = (1, 0, . . . , 0), . . . , en = (0, . . . , 0, 1). In particular,
the existence of bases is crucial to our understanding of linear maps and of
the solvability of linear equations of the form Ax = b.
In analysis we encounter many vector spaces that are infinite dimensional.
For example, the space CR ([a, b]) is an infinite dimensional real vector space.
Our experience in linear algebra suggests that it would be useful to have some
kind of basis for studying this space, and in particular it should be helpful for
considering linear equations as above.
A standard application of Zorn’s lemma shows that every vector space V
has a basis — a set {ui }i∈I ⊂ V such that for all nonzero v ∈ V , there is
a unique choice of finitely many distinct indices i1 , . . . , ik ∈ I and nonzero
scalars c1 , . . . , ck satisfying
v = c1 ui1 + . . . + ck uik .
In the context of analysis, such a basis is called a Hamel basis, to distinguish

it from other notions of basis which are used. For most infinite dimensional
vector spaces a Hamel basis is almost useless, because of the following fact.
Exercise 1.2.1. A Hamel basis for CR ([a, b]) must be uncountable (for a hint
see Exercise 7.5.16).
The fact that Hamel bases for CR ([a, b]) must be uncountable suggests that
we may want to relax our notion of basis. By the exercise, we have no hope to
find a countable basis. However, we can hope for the next best thing, which
is a linearly independent sequence of functions {fn }∞
n=0 ⊂ CR ([a, b]) which in
some sense span the space. A natural guess would be that the sequence of
monomials fn (t) = tn are as close to being a basis for CR ([a, b]) as one can
reasonably expect. This is true, as Weierstrass proved in 1885.
Theorem 1.2.2 (Weierstrass’s approximation theorem). Let f : [a, b] → R
be a continuous function. For every ǫ > 0, there exists a polynomial p with
real coefficients, such that for all t ∈ [a, b],
|p(t) − f (t)| < ǫ.
Since not every continuous function is a polynomial, we cannot hope to

obtain every continuous function as a linear combination of monomials. Weier-
strass’s approximation theorem assures us that we can at least use linear com-
binations of monomials to approximate every continuous function to any given
precision. Thus the monomials can be said to “generate” CR ([a, b]).
Are there any other sequences of nice functions that generate CR ([a, b])? To
give another example, we need a couple of definitions. A Z-periodic function
is a function f : R → R such that f (x + n) = f (x) for all x ∈ R and all n ∈ Z.
A trigonometric polynomial is a function q of the form
N
X
q(x) = an cos(2πnx) + bn sin(2πnx).
n=0
Later in this book, when we will study Fourier series, we will require the
following theorem (see also Exercise 1.6.7). Like the previous theorem, this
one is also due to Weierstrass.
Theorem 1.2.3 (Trigonometric approximation theorem). Let f : R → R be a
continuous Z-periodic function. For every ǫ > 0, there exists a trigonometric
polynomial q, such that for all t ∈ R,
|q(t) − f (t)| < ǫ.
It turns out that the most elegant way to obtain the above two theorems
is to consider a more general problem. We will obtain both Theorem 1.2.2
and Theorem 1.2.3 as simple consequences of the Stone-Weierstrass theorem,
which is a broad generalization of these theorems. Our goal in the remainder
of this chapter is to present and prove the Stone-Weierstrass theorem. Besides
obtaining useful results for later purposes in the course, this also serves to
highlight the spirit of functional analysis. (We will return to the problem of
finding a good notion of basis for infinite dimensional spaces in Chapter 3.)
1.3 The Stone-Weierstrass theorem

Let X be a compact Hausdorff topological space (the appendix contains all
the material in topological and metric spaces that is required for this book).
We will let CR (X) denote the space of continuous, real-valued functions on
X; likewise, C(X) denotes the space of continuous, complex-valued functions
on X. On both of these spaces we define the supremum norm of a function
f to be
kf k∞ = sup |f (x)|.
x∈X
The quantity d(f, g) = kf − gk∞ defines a metric on CR (X) (and also on

C(X)) and is considered to be the distance between the two functions f and
g. This distance makes both CR (X) and C(X) into complete metric spaces.
Both these spaces are vector spaces over the appropriate field, with the usual
operations of pointwise addition of functions and scalar multiplication. In fact,
if f, g ∈ CR (X), then the pointwise product f g is also in CR (X), and together
with the vector space operations, this gives CR (X) the structure of an algebra.
Definition 1.3.1. If A is a subspace of CR (X) or of C(X), then it is said to
be a subalgebra if for all f, g ∈ A, f g is also in A.
Definition 1.3.2. A subalgebra A ⊆ CR (X) is said to separate points if
for every pair of distinct points x, y ∈ X there exists some f ∈ A such that
f (x) 6= f (y).
Theorem 1.3.3 (Stone-Weierstrass theorem (real version)). Let A be a closed
subalgebra of CR (X) which contains the constant functions and separates
points. Then A = CR (X).
One obtains Theorem 1.2.2 immediately by letting X = [a, b] and taking A
to be the closure of the algebra of polynomials with respect to the supremum
norm, noting that the norm closure of an algebra is an algebra.
Exercise 1.3.4. Let A ⊆ CR (X) be a subalgebra, and let A be its closure.
Then A is also a subalgebra.
Another convenient way of stating the Stone-Weierstrass theorem is given
in the following exercise.
Exercise 1.3.5. Prove that Theorem 1.3.3 is equivalent to the following state-
ment: If A is a subalgebra of CR (X) which contains the constant functions and
separates points, then A = CR (X).
To obtain the trigonometric approximation theorem (Theorem 1.2.3), one
first notes that, due to standard trigonometric identities, the trigonometric
polynomials form an algebra. Next, one needs to realize that the continuous,
real-valued, Z-periodic functions on R can be identified with the continuous,

real-valued functions on the torus T = {z ∈ C | |z| = 1}. Indeed, the mapping
Φ : CR (T) → CR (R) given by

Φ(f )(t) = f e2πit , t∈R
maps CR (T) onto the algebra CR,per (R) of continuous Z-periodic functions.
Moreover, Φ maps the constant function to the constant function, it is lin-
ear, and it respects multiplication: Φ(f g) = Φ(f )Φ(g). Therefore, the same
holds for the inverse Φ−1 : CR,per (R) → CR (T). Finally, supt∈R |Φ(f )(t)| =
sup|z|=1 |f (z)| for all f ∈ CR (T).
Now put X = T, and take A ⊆ CR (T) to be the inverse image of all
trigonometric polynomials under Φ (if we identify CR (T) and CR,per (R), then
under this identification A is simply the algebra of all trigonometric polyno-
mials, but we have chosen to make this identification explicit with the use of
the map Φ). By the previous paragraph, in order to prove Theorem 1.2.3 it
suffices to show that A is dense in CR (X). It is elementary to check that A
contains the constants and separates points on X = T. Applying the version of
the Stone-Weierstrass theorem given in Exercise 1.3.5, we find that A is dense
in CR (T), therefore Φ(A) is dense in CR,per (R). That concludes the proof of
the trigonometric approximation theorem.
Exercise 1.3.6. Fill in the details in the proof of Theorem 1.2.3. In particular,
prove that A is an algebra that separates points, and prove that Φ is surjective.
Proof of the Stone-Weierstrass theorem

Let A ⊆ CR (X) be as in the statement of Theorem 1.3.3. We isolate a few
lemmas before reaching the main argument of the proof.
Lemma 1.3.7. On every interval [−L, L], the absolute value function is uni-
formly approximable by polynomials. That is, for every ǫ > 0, there exists a
polynomial p such that
|p(t) − |t|| < ǫ (1.2)
for all t ∈ [−L, L].
Proof. It suffices to prove the lemma for the interval [−1, 1] (why?). To this
end, consider the function h(x) = (1 − x)1/2 . It is a standard (but nontrivial)
exercise in first-year analysis to show that the Taylor series of h about the point
0 converges uniformly in the closed interval [−1, 1]. Truncating the series at
some high power, we find, given ǫ > 0, a polynomial q such that |q(x)−h(x)| <
ǫ for all x ∈ [−1, 1]. Now since |t| = h(1 − t2 ), the polynomial p(t) = q(1 − t2 )
satisfies (1.2).
Exercise 1.3.8. Fill in the details of the above proof; in particular prove the
uniform convergence of the Maclaurin series of h on [−1, 1]. (Hint: use the
integral form of the remainder for the Taylor polynomial approximation.)
For every function f , we let |f | denote the function |f | : x 7→ |f (x)|.

Lemma 1.3.9. If f ∈ A, then the function |f | is also in A.
Proof. Let ǫ > 0 be given. We will find a function g ∈ A such that kg−|f |k∞ <
ǫ. Since A is closed and since ǫ is arbitrary, this will show that |f | ∈ A.
Let I = [−kf k∞, kf k∞ ]. By the previous lemma there exists a polynomial
p such that supt∈I |p(t) − |t|| < ǫ. Put g = p ◦ f . Since A is an algebra and p
is a polynomial, g ∈ A. Thus
kg − |f |k∞ = sup |p(f (x)) − |f (x)|| ≤ sup |p(t) − |t|| < ǫ,

x∈X t∈I
as required.
For any two functions f, g, we let f ∧ g and f ∨ g denote the functions
f ∧ g : x 7→ min{f (x), g(x)} and f ∨ g : x 7→ max{f (x), g(x)}.
Lemma 1.3.10. If f, g ∈ A, then the functions f ∧ g and f ∨ g are also in A.
Proof. This follows immediately from Lemma 1.3.9 together with the formulas
min{a, b} = a+b−|a−b|
2 and max{a, b} = a+b+|a−b|
2 , which hold true for all real
a and b.
Lemma 1.3.11. For every pair of distinct points x, y ∈ X, and every a, b ∈ R,
there exists a function g ∈ A such that g(x) = a and g(y) = b.
Proof. Exercise.
Completion of the proof of the Stone-Weierstrass theorem. Let f ∈

CR (X). We must show that f ∈ A. It suffices, for a fixed ǫ > 0, to find h ∈ A
such that kf − hk∞ < ǫ.
We start by choosing, for every x, y ∈ X, a function fxy ∈ A such that
fxy (x) = f (x) and fxy (y) = f (y). This is possible thanks to Lemma 1.3.11.
Next we produce, for every x ∈ X, a function gx ∈ A such that gx (x) =
f (x) and gx (y) < f (y) + ǫ for all y ∈ X. This is done as follows. For every y ∈
X, let Uy be a neighborhood of y in which fxy < f + ǫ. The compactness of X
ensures that there are finitely many of these neighborhoods, say Uy1 , . . . , Uym ,
that cover X. Then gx = fxy1 ∧ . . . ∧ fxym does the job (gx is in A, thanks to
Lemma 1.3.10).
Finally, we find h ∈ A such that |h(x) − f (x)| < ǫ for all x ∈ X. For every
x ∈ X let Vx be a neighborhood of x where gx > f − ǫ. Again we find a
finite cover Vx1 , . . . , Vxn and then define h = gx1 ∨ . . . ∨ gxn . This function lies
between f + ǫ and f − ǫ, so it satisfies |h(x) − f (x)| < ǫ for all x ∈ X, and the
proof is complete.
Exercise 1.3.12. Did we use the assumption that X is Hausdorff? Explain.
1.4 The Stone-Weierstrass theorem over the complex

numbers
Often, one finds it more convenient to study or to use the algebra C(X)
of continuous complex-valued functions on X. Maybe the reader has not en-
countered this algebra of functions before, but its structure as a vector space
is very close to that of CR (X).
Exercise 1.4.1. Prove that C(X) = {u + iv | u, v ∈ CR (X)}.
If f = u + iv where u, v ∈ CR (X), then we denote Ref = u and Imf = v.
Thus, for every f ∈ C(X), f = Ref + iImf .
It turns out that it is harder for a subalgebra of C(X) to be dense in
C(X) than it is for a subalgebra of CR (X) to be dense in CR (X). Consider
the following example.
Example 1.4.2. Let D denote the open unit disc in C, and let D denote its
closure. Let A(D) denote the disc algebra, which is defined to be the closure
of complex polynomials in C(D), that is
( N
)k·k∞
X
A(D) = z 7→ ak z k : N ∈ N, a0 , . . . , aN ∈ C .
k=0
Certainly, A(D) is a complex algebra which contains the constants and sepa-
rates points. By a theorem in complex analysis, the uniform limit of analytic
functions is analytic. Thus, every element of A(D) is analytic in D, so this
algebra is quite far from being the entire algebra C(D).
It is worth stressing that in the above example we mean polynomials in
one complex variable z. We do not mean polynomials in the two variables x
and y, where z = x + iy = Rez + iImz.
Exercise 1.4.3. Is the space C[x, y] of two variable complex polynomials
dense in C(D)?
To make the Stone-Weierstrass theorem work in the complex-valued case,
one needs to add one additional assumption.
Definition 1.4.4. A subspace S ⊆ C(X) is said to be self-adjoint if for
every f ∈ S, the complex conjugate of f (i.e., the function f : x 7→ f (x)) is
also in S.
Theorem 1.4.5 (Stone-Weierstrass theorem (complex version)). Let A be a
closed and self-adjoint subalgebra of C(X) which contains the constant func-
tions and separates points. Then A = C(X).
Proof. Consider the real vector space ReA = {Ref : f ∈ A}. Since Ref = f +f 2
and A is self-adjoint, it follows that ReA ⊆ A. Because A is a subalgebra of
C(X), ReA is a subalgebra of CR (X). From closedness of A it follows that
ReA is closed, too.
From the assumption that A is a subspace that separates points, it follows
that ReA also separates points. Indeed, given x, y ∈ X, let f ∈ A such that
f (x) 6= f (y). Then, either Ref (x) 6= Ref (y), or Imf (x) 6= Imf (y). But Imf =
Re(−if ) ∈ ReA, so ReA separates points.
Thus, ReA is a closed, real subalgebra of CR (X) that contains the constants
and separates points. By the (real) Stone-Weierstrass theorem, ReA = CR (X).
It follows that every real-valued continuous function on X is in A. Symmetri-
cally, every imaginary valued continuous function on X is in A. By Exercise
1.4.1 we conclude that C(X) = A.
1.5 Concluding remarks

Functional analysis originated from an interest in solving analytical prob-
lems such as the integral equation (1.1). Equations of this kind can be
rephrased as problems about operators acting on infinite dimensional vector
spaces. If one wishes to understand operators on infinite dimensional vector
spaces, the first thing to do is to study the spaces themselves. In this chapter
we took a look at the space CR ([a, b]), and proved Weierstrass’s approximation
theorem, which was a byproduct of the Stone-Weierstrass theorem. Besides
obtaining important theorems to be used subsequently, these results should
give a flavor of how life in infinite dimensional vector spaces is different from
what one is used to in finite dimensional spaces.
The Stone-Weierstrass theorem and the way that we have applied it serve
as an example of functional analysis at work. We had a concrete approxi-
mation problem — approximating continuous functions by polynomials or by
trigonometric polynomials — which was solved by considering a vastly more
general approximation problem. Considering a more general problem serves
two purposes. First, after we have proved the result, we have a ready-to-use
tool that will be applicable in many situations. Second, by generalizing the
problem we strip away the irrelevant details (for example, the particular na-
ture of the functions we are trying to approximate with or the nature of the
space on which they live) and we are left with the essence of the problem.
To prove the theorem it was convenient to employ the language of abstract
analysis, namely, to introduce a norm and to consider the problem inside an
algebra which is also a metric space. It was convenient to consider a closed
subalgebra A, even though there was no closed subalgebra in the original
problems, and even though this closed subalgebra turned out to be the whole
space of continuous functions.
In mathematical culture, people sometimes make a distinction between

“hard analysis” and “soft analysis”. “Hard analysis” usually refers to argu-
ments that require explicit estimates or calculations (such as are required to
show that a power series converges in an interval, or that some generalized
integral converges conditionally), and “soft analysis” refers to arguments that
use algebraic constructs or deep topological considerations. Because functional
analysis provides an algebraic framework for a unified and elegant treatment
of problems in analysis, many students naively consider functional analysis to
be a magical device which turns every hard analytical problem into a soft one.
Things are not that simple.
The elegant and abstract proof of the Weierstrass theorem presented above
is quite softer than Weierstrass’s original proof, which involved integration on
the real line and the use of power series. However, we could not do without
some piece√of “hard analysis”: we required the fact that the Taylor series
of h(x) = 1 − x converges uniformly in [−1, 1]. This is an instance of the
following maxim (to be taken with a grain of salt): there is no analysis without
“hard analysis”.
What is meant by this is that one will hardly ever get an interesting the-
orem of substance, which applies to concrete cases in analysis, that does not
involve some kind of difficult calculation, delicate estimation, or at least a
clever trick.
√ In our example, the hard analysis part is showing that the power
series of 1 − x converges uniformly in [−1, 1]. The Stone-Weierstrass theo-
rem, which has a very soft proof, then spares us the use of hard techniques
when it gives us the polynomial and the trigonometric approximation theo-
rems for free. But the hard analysis cannot be eliminated entirely. It is good
to keep this in mind.
1.6 Additional exercises

Exercise 1.6.1. Let f ∈ CR ([−1, 1]) such that f (0) = 0. Prove that f can be
approximated in uniform norm by polynomials with zero constant coefficient.
Exercise 1.6.2. Let C0 (R) be the algebra of all continuous functions that
vanish at infinity, that is
C0 (R) = {f ∈ C(R) : lim f (x) = lim f (x) = 0}.

x→∞ x→−∞
Let A be a self-adjoint subalgebra of C0 (R) that separates points, and assume

that for all x ∈ R, there exists f ∈ A such that f (x) 6= 0. Prove that A =
C0 (R).
Exercise 1.6.3. Determine which of the following statements are true.
1. For every f ∈ CR ([a, b]), all x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ∈ [a, b], and every ǫ > 0, there
exists a trigonometric polynomial p such that supx∈[a,b] |p(x) − f (x)| < ǫ
and p(xi ) = f (xi ) for i = 1, 2, . . . , n.
2. For every f ∈ CR ([a, b]) which has n continuous derivatives on [a, b],
and every ǫ > 0, there exists a trigonometric polynomial p such that
supx∈[a,b] |p(k) (x)−f (k) (x)| < ǫ for all k = 0, 1, . . . , n. (Here f (k) denotes
the kth derivative of f .)
Exercise 1.6.4. 1. Let f be a continuous real-valued function on [a, b]
Rb
such that a f (x)xn dx = 0 for all n = 0, 1, 2, . . .. Prove that f ≡ 0.
2. Let f be a continuous real-valued function on [−1, 1] such that
R1 n
−1 f (x)x dx = 0 for all odd n. What can you say about f ?
Exercise 1.6.5. Let X be a compact metric space. Prove that CR (X) is a

separable metric space.
Exercise 1.6.6. Let X and Y be compact metric spaces. Let X × Y be the
product space (see Definition A.3.10) and fix a function h ∈ C(X × Y ). Prove
that for every ǫ > 0, there exist f1 , . . . , fn ∈ C(X) and g1 , . . . , gn ∈ C(Y )
such that for all (x, y) ∈ X × Y ,
n
X
|h(x, y) − fi (x)gi (y)| < ǫ.
i=1
Exercise 1.6.7. A Zk -periodic function is a function f : Rk → R such that

f (x + n) = f (x) for all x ∈ Rk and n ∈ Zk . A trigonometric polynomial
on Rk is a function q of the form
X
q(x) = an cos(2πn · x) + bn sin(2πn · x),
n
where the sum above

P is finite, and for x = (x1 , . . . , xk ) and n = (n1 , . . . , nk )
we write n · x = ni xi . Prove the following theorem.
Theorem (Trigonometric approximation theorem). Let f : Rk → R be a
continuous Zk -periodic function. For every ǫ > 0 there exists a trigonometric
polynomial q such that for all x ∈ Rk ,
|q(x) − f (x)| < ǫ.
Exercise 1.6.8 (Holladay1 ). Let X be a compact Hausdorff space and let

CH (X) denote the algebra of continuous functions taking quaternionic values.
1 This exercise was suggested to me by Shlomi Gover, who found the note [14] when he
was a teaching assistant in the course I taught.

Here, H denotes the quaternions, that is, the four-dimensional real vector
space
H = {a + bi + cj + dk : a, b, c, d ∈ R},
with a basis consisting of 1 ∈ R and three additional elements i, j, k, and
with multiplication determined by the multiplication of the reals and by the
identities
i2 = j 2 = k 2 = ijk = −1.
(The topology on H — required for the notion of continuous functions from
X into H — is the one given by identifying H with R4 .) Prove that if A is a
closed subalgebra of CH (X) that separates points and contains all the constant
H-valued functions, then A = CH (X).
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The door opened. They bowed respectfully towards the diamond
stud. Somebody had drawn a pair of woman’s legs on his shirtfront.
There was a bright flush on each of his cheeks. The lower lid of one
eye sagged, giving his weasle face a quizzical lobsided look.
“Wazzahell, Marco wazzahell?” he was muttering. “We aint got a
thing to drink.... Bring the Atlantic Ozz-shen and two quarts.”
“De suite monsieur....” The old waiter bowed. “Emile tell Auguste,
immediatement et bien frappé.”
As Emile went down the corridor he could hear singing.
O would the Atlantic were all champagne
Bright bi-i-i....
The moonface and the bottlenose were coming back from the
lavatory reeling arm in arm among the palms in the hall.
“These damn fools make me sick.”
“Yessir these aint the champagne suppers we used to have in
Frisco in the ole days.”
“Ah those were great days those.”
“By the way,” the moonfaced man steadied himself against the
wall, “Holyoke ole fella, did you shee that very nobby little article on
the rubber trade I got into the morning papers.... That’ll make the
investors nibble ... like lil mishe.”
“Whash you know about rubber?... The stuff aint no good.”
“You wait an shee, Holyoke ole fella or you looshing opportunity of
your life.... Drunk or sober I can smell money ... on the wind.”
“Why aint you got any then?” The bottlenosed man’s beefred face
went purple; he doubled up letting out great hoots of laughter.
“Because I always let my friends in on my tips,” said the other
man soberly. “Hay boy where’s zis here private dinin room?”
“Par ici monsieur.”
A red accordionpleated dress swirled past them, a little oval face
framed by brown flat curls, pearly teeth in an open-mouthed laugh.
“Fifi Waters,” everyone shouted. “Why my darlin lil Fifi, come to
my arms.”
She was lifted onto a chair where she stood jiggling from one foot
to the other, champagne dripping out of a tipped glass.
“Merry Christmas.”
“Happy New Year.”
“Many returns of the day....”
A fair young man who had followed her in was reeling intricately
round the table singing:
O we went to the animals’ fair
And the birds and the beasts were there
And the big baboon
By the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair.
“Hoopla,” cried Fifi Waters and mussed the gray hair of the man
with the diamond stud. “Hoopla.” She jumped down with a kick,
pranced round the room, kicking high with her skirts fluffed up round
her knees.
“Oh la la ze French high kicker!”
“Look out for the Pony Ballet.”
Her slender legs, shiny black silk stockings tapering to red
rosetted slippers flashed in the men’s faces.
“She’s a mad thing,” cried the lady in the tiara.
Hoopla. Holyoke was swaying in the doorway with his top hat
tilted over the glowing bulb of his nose. She let out a whoop and
kicked it off.
“It’s a goal,” everyone cried.
“For crissake you kicked me in the eye.”
She stared at him a second with round eyes and then burst into
tears on the broad shirtfront of the diamond stud. “I wont be insulted
like that,” she sobbed.
“Rub the other eye.”
“Get a bandage someone.”
“Goddam it she may have put his eye out.”
“Call a cab there waiter.”
“Where’s a doctor?”
“That’s hell to pay ole fella.”
A handkerchief full of tears and blood pressed to his eye the
bottlenosed man stumbled out. The men and women crowded
through the door after him; last went the blond young man, reeling
and singing:
An the big baboon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair.
Fifi Waters was sobbing with her head on the table.
“Dont cry Fifi,” said the Colonel who was still sitting where he had
sat all the evening. “Here’s something I rather fancy might do you
good.” He pushed a glass of champagne towards her down the
table.
She sniffled and began drinking it in little sips. “Hullo Roger, how’s
the boy?”
“The boy’s quite well thank you.... Rather bored, dont you know?
An evening with such infernal bounders....”
“I’m hungry.”
“There doesnt seem to be anything left to eat.”
“I didnt know you’d be here or I’d have come earlier, honest.”
“Would you indeed?... Now that’s very nice.”
The long ash dropped from the Colonel’s cigar; he got to his feet.
“Now Fifi, I’ll call a cab and we’ll go for a ride in the Park....”
She drank down her champagne and nodded brightly. “Dear me
it’s four o’clock....” “You have the proper wraps haven’t you?”
She nodded again.
“Splendid Fifi ... I say you are in form.” The Colonel’s cigarcolored
face was unraveling in smiles. “Well, come along.”
She looked about her in a dazed way. “Didnt I come with
somebody?”
“Quite unnecessary!”
In the hall they came upon the fair young man quietly vomiting
into a firebucket under an artificial palm.
“Oh let’s leave him,” she said wrinkling up her nose.
“Quite unnecessary,” said the Colonel.
Emile brought their wraps. The redhaired girl had gone home.
“Look here, boy.” The Colonel waved his cane. “Call me a cab
please.... Be sure the horse is decent and the driver is sober.”
“De suite monsieur.”
The sky beyond roofs and chimneys was the blue of a sapphire.
The Colonel took three or four deep sniffs of the dawnsmelling air
and threw his cigar into the gutter. “Suppose we have a bit of
breakfast at Cleremont. I haven’t had anything fit to eat all night.
That beastly sweet champagne, ugh!”
Fifi giggled. After the Colonel had examined the horse’s fetlocks
and patted his head, they climbed into the cab. The Colonel fitted in
Fifi carefully under his arm and they drove off. Emile stood a second
in the door of the restaurant uncrumpling a five dollar bill. He was
tired and his insteps ached.
When Emile came out of the back door of the restaurant he found
Congo waiting for him sitting on the doorstep. Congo’s skin had a
green chilly look under the frayed turned up coatcollar.
“This is my friend,” Emile said to Marco. “Came over on the same
boat.”
“You havent a bottle of fine under your coat have you? Sapristi
I’ve seen some chickens not half bad come out of this place.”
“But what’s the matter?”
“Lost my job that’s all.... I wont have to take any more off that guy.
Come over and drink a coffee.”
They ordered coffee and doughnuts in a lunchwagon on a vacant
lot.
“Eh bien you like it this sacred pig of a country?” asked Marco.
“Why not? I like it anywhere. It’s all the same, in France you are
paid badly and live well; here you are paid well and live badly.”
“Questo paese e completamente soto sopra.”
“I think I’ll go to sea again....”
“Say why de hell doan yous guys loin English?” said the man with
a cauliflower face who slapped the three mugs of coffee down on the
counter.
“If we talk Engleesh,” snapped Marco “maybe you no lika what we
say.”
“Why did they fire you?”
“Merde. I dont know. I had an argument with the old camel who
runs the place.... He lived next door to the stables; as well as
washing the carriages he made me scrub the floors in his house....
His wife, she had a face like this.” Congo sucked in his lips and tried
to look crosseyed.
Marco laughed. “Santissima Maria putana!”
“How did you talk to them?”
“They pointed to things; then I nodded my head and said Awright.
I went there at eight and worked till six and they gave me every day
more filthy things to do.... Last night they tell me to clean out the
toilet in the bathroom. I shook my head.... That’s woman’s work....
She got very angry and started screeching. Then I began to learn
Angleesh.... Go awright to ’ell, I says to her.... Then the old man
comes and chases me out into a street with a carriage whip and
says he wont pay me my week.... While we were arguing he got a
policeman, and when I try to explain to the policeman that the old
man owed me ten dollars for the week, he says Beat it you lousy
wop, and cracks me on the coco with his nightstick.... Merde alors...”
Marco was red in the face. “He call you lousy wop?”
Congo nodded his mouth full of doughnut.
“Notten but shanty Irish himself,” muttered Marco in English. “I’m
fed up with this rotten town....
“It’s the same all over the world, the police beating us up, rich
people cheating us out of their starvation wages, and who’s fault?...
Dio cane! Your fault, my fault, Emile’s fault....”
“We didn’t make the world.... They did or maybe God did.”
“God’s on their side, like a policeman.... When the day comes
we’ll kill God.... I am an anarchist.”
Congo hummed “les bourgeois à la lanterne nom de dieu.”
“Are you one of us?”
Congo shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not a catholic or a protestant;
I haven’t any money and I haven’t any work. Look at that.” Congo
pointed with a dirty finger to a long rip on his trouserknee. “That’s
anarchist.... Hell I’m going out to Senegal and get to be a nigger.”
“You look like one already,” laughed Emile.
“That’s why they call me Congo.”
“But that’s all silly,” went on Emile. “People are all the same. It’s
only that some people get ahead and others dont.... That’s why I
came to New York.”
“Dio cane I think that too twentyfive years ago.... When you’re old
like me you know better. Doesnt the shame of it get you sometimes?
Here” ... he tapped with his knuckles on his stiff shirtfront.... “I feel it
hot and like choking me here.... Then I say to myself Courage our
day is coming, our day of blood.”
“I say to myself,” said Emile “When you have some money old
kid.”
“Listen, before I leave Torino when I go last time to see the mama
I go to a meetin of comrades.... A fellow from Capua got up to speak
... a very handsome man, tall and very thin.... He said that there
would be no more force when after the revolution nobody lived off
another man’s work.... Police, governments, armies, presidents,
kings ... all that is force. Force is not real; it is illusion. The working
man makes all that himself because he believes it. The day that we
stop believing in money and property it will be like a dream when we
wake up. We will not need bombs or barricades.... Religion, politics,
democracy all that is to keep us asleep.... Everybody must go round
telling people: Wake up!”
“When you go down into the street I’ll be with you,” said Congo.
“You know that man I tell about?... That man Errico Malatesta, in
Italy greatest man after Garibaldi.... He give his whole life in jail and
exile, in Egypt, in England, in South America, everywhere.... If I
could be a man like that, I dont care what they do; they can string me
up, shoot me ... I dont care ... I am very happy.”
“But he must be crazy a feller like that,” said Emile slowly. “He
must be crazy.”
Marco gulped down the last of his coffee. “Wait a minute. You are
too young. You will understand.... One by one they make us
understand.... And remember what I say.... Maybe I’m too old,
maybe I’m dead, but it will come when the working people awake
from slavery.... You will walk out in the street and the police will run
away, you will go into a bank and there will be money poured out on
the floor and you wont stoop to pick it up, no more good.... All over
the world we are preparing. There are comrades even in China....
Your Commune in France was the beginning ... socialism failed. It’s
for the anarchists to strike the next blow.... If we fail there will be
others....”
Congo yawned, “I am sleepy as a dog.”
Outside the lemoncolored dawn was drenching the empty streets,
dripping from cornices, from the rails of fire escapes, from the rims of
ashcans, shattering the blocks of shadow between buildings. The
streetlights were out. At a corner they looked up Broadway that was
narrow and scorched as if a fire had gutted it.
“I never see the dawn,” said Marco, his voice rattling in his throat,
“that I dont say to myself perhaps ... perhaps today.” He cleared his
throat and spat against the base of a lamppost; then he moved away
from them with his waddling step, taking hard short sniffs of the cool
air.
“Is that true, Congo, about shipping again?”
“Why not? Got to see the world a bit...”
“I’ll miss you.... I’ll have to find another room.”
“You’ll find another friend to bunk with.”
“But if you do that you’ll stay a sailor all your life.”
“What does it matter? When you are rich and married I’ll come
and visit you.”
They were walking down Sixth Avenue. An L train roared above
their heads leaving a humming rattle to fade among the girders after
it had passed.
“Why dont you get another job and stay on a while?”
Congo produced two bent cigarettes out of the breast pocket of
his coat, handed one to Emile, struck a match on the seat of his
trousers, and let the smoke out slowly through his nose. “I’m fed up
with it here I tell you....” He brought his flat hand up across his
Adam’s apple, “up to here.... Maybe I’ll go home an visit the little girls
of Bordeaux.... At least they are not all made of whalebone.... I’ll
engage myself as a volunteer in the navy and wear a red pompom....
The girls like that. That’s the only life.... Get drunk and raise cain
payday and see the extreme orient.”
“And die of the syph in a hospital at thirty....”
“What’s it matter?... Your body renews itself every seven years.”
The steps of their rooming house smelled of cabbage and stale
beer. They stumbled up yawning.
“Waiting’s a rotton tiring job.... Makes the soles of your feet
ache.... Look it’s going to be a fine day; I can see the sun on the
watertank opposite.”
Congo pulled off his shoes and socks and trousers and curled up
in bed like a cat.
“Those dirty shades let in all the light,” muttered Emile as he
stretched himself on the outer edge of the bed. He lay tossing
uneasily on the rumpled sheets. Congo’s breathing beside him was
low and regular. If I was only like that, thought Emile, never worrying
about a thing.... But it’s not that way you get along in the world. My
God it’s stupid.... Marco’s gaga the old fool.
And he lay on his back looking up at the rusty stains on the
ceiling, shuddering every time an elevated train shook the room.
Sacred name of God I must save up my money. When he turned
over the knob on the bedstead rattled and he remembered Marco’s
hissing husky voice: I never see the dawn that I dont say to myself
perhaps.
“If you’ll excuse me just a moment Mr. Olafson,” said the

houseagent. “While you and the madam are deciding about the
apartment...” They stood side by side in the empty room, looking out
the window at the slatecolored Hudson and the warships at anchor
and a schooner tacking upstream.
Suddenly she turned to him with glistening eyes; “O Billy, just
think of it.”
He took hold of her shoulders and drew her to him slowly. “You
can smell the sea, almost.”
“Just think Billy that we are going to live here, on Riverside Drive.
I’ll have to have a day at home ... Mrs. William C. Olafson, 218
Riverside Drive.... I wonder if it is all right to put the address on our
visiting cards.” She took his hand and led him through the empty
cleanswept rooms that no one had ever lived in. He was a big
shambling man with eyes of a washed out blue deepset in a white
infantile head.
“It’s a lot of money Bertha.”
“We can afford it now, of course we can. We must live up to our
income.... Your position demands it.... And think how happy we’ll be.”
The house agent came back down the hall rubbing his hands.
“Well, well, well ... Ah I see that we’ve come to a favorable
decision.... You are very wise too, not a finer location in the city of
New York and in a few months you wont be able to get anything out
this way for love or money....”
“Yes we’ll take it from the first of the month.”
“Very good.... You wont regret your decision, Mr. Olafson.”
“I’ll send you a check for the amount in the morning.”
“At your own convenience.... And what is your present address
please....” The houseagent took out a notebook and moistened a
stub of pencil with his tongue.
“You had better put Hotel Astor.” She stepped in front of her
husband.
“Our things are stored just at the moment.”
Mr. Olafson turned red.
“And ... er ... we’d like the names of two references please in the
city of New York.”
“I’m with Keating and Bradley, Sanitary Engineers, 43 Park
Avenue...”
“He’s just been made assistant general manager,” added Mrs.
Olafson.
When they got out on the Drive walking downtown against a
tussling wind she cried out: “Darling I’m so happy.... It’s really going
to be worth living now.”
“But why did you tell him we lived at the Astor?”
“I couldnt tell him we lived in the Bronx could I? He’d have thought
we were Jews and wouldnt have rented us the apartment.”
“But you know I dont like that sort of thing.”
“Well we’ll just move down to the Astor for the rest of the week, if
you’re feeling so truthful.... I’ve never in my life stopped in a big
downtown hotel.”
“Oh Bertha it’s the principle of the thing.... I don’t like you to be
like that.”
She turned and looked at him with twitching nostrils. “You’re so
nambypamby, Billy.... I wish to heavens I’d married a man for a
husband.”
He took her by the arm. “Let’s go up here,” he said gruffly with his
face turned away.
They walked up a cross street between buildinglots. At a corner
the rickety half of a weatherboarded farmhouse was still standing.
There was half a room with blueflowered paper eaten by brown
stains on the walls, a smoked fireplace, a shattered builtin cupboard,
and an iron bedstead bent double.
Plates slip endlessly through Bud’s greasy fingers. Smell of swill

and hot soapsuds. Twice round with the little mop, dip, rinse and pile
in the rack for the longnosed Jewish boy to wipe. Knees wet from
spillings, grease creeping up his forearms, elbows cramped.
“Hell this aint no job for a white man.”
“I dont care so long as I eat,” said the Jewish boy above the rattle
of dishes and the clatter and seething of the range where three
sweating cooks fried eggs and ham and hamburger steak and
browned potatoes and cornedbeef hash.
“Sure I et all right,” said Bud and ran his tongue round his teeth
dislodging a sliver of salt meat that he mashed against his palate
with his tongue. Twice round with the little mop, dip, rinse and pile in
the rack for the longnosed Jewish boy to wipe. There was a lull. The
Jewish boy handed Bud a cigarette. They stood leaning against the
sink.
“Aint no way to make money dishwashing.” The cigarette wabbled
on the Jewish boy’s heavy lip as he spoke.
“Aint no job for a white man nohow,” said Bud. “Waitin’s better,
they’s the tips.”
A man in a brown derby came in through the swinging door from
the lunchroom. He was a bigjawed man with pigeyes and a long
cigar sticking straight out of the middle of his mouth. Bud caught his
eye and felt the cold glint twisting his bowels.
“Whosat?” he whispered.
“Dunno.... Customer I guess.”
“Dont he look to you like one o them detectives?”
“How de hell should I know? I aint never been in jail.” The Jewish
boy turned red and stuck out his jaw.
The busboy set down a new pile of dirty dishes. Twice round with
the little mop, dip, rinse and pile in the rack. When the man in the
brown derby passed back through the kitchen, Bud kept his eyes on
his red greasy hands. What the hell even if he is a detective.... When
Bud had finished the batch, he strolled to the door wiping his hands,
took his coat and hat from the hook and slipped out the side door
past the garbage cans out into the street. Fool to jump two hours
pay. In an optician’s window the clock was at twentyfive past two. He
walked down Broadway, past Lincoln Square, across Columbus
Circle, further downtown towards the center of things where it’d be
more crowded.
She lay with her knees doubled up to her chin, the nightgown
pulled tight under her toes.
“Now straighten out and go to sleep dear.... Promise mother you’ll
go to sleep.”
“Wont daddy come and kiss me good night?”
“He will when he comes in; he’s gone back down to the office and
mother’s going to Mrs. Spingarn’s to play euchre.”
“When’ll daddy be home?”
“Ellie I said go to sleep.... I’ll leave the light.”
“Dont mummy, it makes shadows.... When’ll daddy be home?”
“When he gets good and ready.” She was turning down the
gaslight. Shadows out of the corners joined wings and rushed
together. “Good night Ellen.” The streak of light of the door narrowed
behind mummy, slowly narrowed to a thread up and along the top.
The knob clicked; the steps went away down the hall; the front door
slammed. A clock ticked somewhere in the silent room; outside the
apartment, outside the house, wheels and gallumping of hoofs,
trailing voices; the roar grew. It was black except for the two strings
of light that made an upside down L in the corner of the door.
Ellie wanted to stretch out her feet but she was afraid to. She
didnt dare take her eyes from the upside down L in the corner of the
door. If she closed her eyes the light would go out. Behind the bed,
out of the windowcurtains, out of the closet, from under the table
shadows nudged creakily towards her. She held on tight to her
ankles, pressed her chin in between her knees. The pillow bulged
with shadow, rummaging shadows were slipping into the bed. If she
closed her eyes the light would go out.
Black spiraling roar outside was melting through the walls making
the cuddled shadows throb. Her tongue clicked against her teeth like
the ticking of the clock. Her arms and legs were stiff; her neck was
stiff; she was going to yell. Yell above the roaring and the rattat
outside, yell to make daddy hear, daddy come home. She drew in
her breath and shrieked again. Make daddy come home. The roaring
shadows staggered and danced, the shadows lurched round and
round. Then she was crying, her eyes were full of safe warm tears,
they were running over her cheeks and into her ears. She turned
over and lay crying with her face in the pillow.
The gaslamps tremble a while down the purplecold streets and

then go out under the lurid dawn. Gus McNiel, the sleep still
gumming his eyes, walks beside his wagon swinging a wire basket
of milkbottles, stopping at doors, collecting the empties, climbing
chilly stairs, remembering grades A and B and pints of cream and
buttermilk, while the sky behind cornices, tanks, roofpeaks,
chimneys becomes rosy and yellow. Hoarfrost glistens on doorsteps
and curbs. The horse with dangling head lurches jerkily from door to
door. There begin to be dark footprints on the frosty pavement. A
heavy brewers’ dray rumbles down the street.
“Howdy Moike, a little chilled are ye?” shouts Gus McNiel at a cop
threshing his arms on the corner of Eighth Avenue.
“Howdy Gus. Cows still milkin’?”
It’s broad daylight when he finally slaps the reins down on the
gelding’s threadbare rump and starts back to the dairy, empties
bouncing and jiggling in the cart behind him. At Ninth Avenue a train
shoots overhead clattering downtown behind a little green engine
that emits blobs of smoke white and dense as cottonwool to melt in
the raw air between the stiff blackwindowed houses. The first rays of
the sun pick out the gilt lettering of DANIEL McGILLYCUDDY’S
WINES AND LIQUORS at the corner of Tenth Avenue. Gus McNiel’s
tongue is dry and the dawn has a salty taste in his mouth. A can o
beer’d be the makin of a guy a cold mornin like this. He takes a turn
with the reins round the whip and jumps over the wheel. His numb
feet sting when they hit the pavement. Stamping to get the blood
back into his toes he shoves through the swinging doors.
“Well I’ll be damned if it aint the milkman bringin us a pint o cream
for our coffee.” Gus spits into the newly polished cuspidor beside the
bar.
“Boy, I got a thoist on me....”
“Been drinkin too much milk again, Gus, I’ll warrant,” roars the
barkeep out of a square steak face.
The saloon smells of brasspolish and fresh sawdust. Through an
open window a streak of ruddy sunlight caresses the rump of a
naked lady who reclines calm as a hardboiled egg on a bed of
spinach in a giltframed picture behind the bar.
“Well Gus what’s yer pleasure a foine cold mornin loike this?”
“I guess beer’ll do, Mac.”
The foam rises in the glass, trembles up, slops over. The barkeep
cuts across the top with a wooden scoop, lets the foam settle a
second, then puts the glass under the faintly wheezing spigot again.
Gus is settling his heel comfortably against the brass rail.
“Well how’s the job?”
Gus gulps the glass of beer and makes a mark on his neck with
his flat hand before wiping his mouth with it. “Full up to the neck wid
it.... I tell yer what I’m goin to do, I’m goin to go out West, take up
free land in North Dakota or somewhere an raise wheat.... I’m pretty
handy round a farm.... This here livin in the city’s no good.”
“How’ll Nellie take that?”
“She wont cotton to it much at foist, loikes her comforts of home
an all that she’s been used to, but I think she’ll loike it foine onct
she’s out there an all. This aint no loife for her nor me neyther.”
“You’re right there. This town’s goin to hell.... Me and the misses’ll
sell out here some day soon I guess. If we could buy a noice genteel
restaurant uptown or a roadhouse, that’s what’d suit us. Got me eye
on a little property out Bronxville way, within easy drivin distance.”
He lifts a malletshaped fist meditatively to his chin. “I’m sick o
bouncin these goddam drunks every night. Whade hell did I get
outen the ring for xep to stop fightin? Jus last night two guys starts
asluggin an I has to mix it up with both of em to clear the place out....
I’m sick o fighten every drunk on Tenth Avenoo.... Have somethin on
the house?”
“Jez I’m afraid Nellie’ll smell it on me.”
“Oh, niver moind that. Nellie ought to be used to a bit o drinkin.
Her ole man loikes it well enough.”
“But honest Mac I aint been slopped once since me weddinday.”
“I dont blame ye. She’s a real sweet girl Nellie is. Those little
spitcurls o hers’d near drive a feller crazy.”
The second beer sends a foamy acrid flush to Gus’s fingertips.
Laughing he slaps his thigh.
“She’s a pippin, that’s what she is Gus, so ladylike an all.”
“Well I reckon I’ll be gettin back to her.”
“You lucky young divil to be goin home to bed wid your wife when
we’re all startin to go to work.”
Gus’s red face gets redder. His ears tingle. “Sometimes she’s
abed yet.... So long Mac.” He stamps out into the street again.
The morning has grown bleak. Leaden clouds have settled down
over the city. “Git up old skin an bones,” shouts Gus jerking at the
gelding’s head. Eleventh Avenue is full of icy dust, of grinding rattle
of wheels and scrape of hoofs on the cobblestones. Down the
railroad tracks comes the clang of a locomotive bell and the clatter of
shunting freightcars. Gus is in bed with his wife talking gently to her:
Look here Nellie, you wouldn’t moind movin West would yez? I’ve
filed application for free farmin land in the state o North Dakota,
black soil land where we can make a pile o money in wheat; some
fellers git rich in foive good crops.... Healthier for the kids anyway....
“Hello Moike!” There’s poor old Moike still on his beat. Cold work
bein a cop. Better be a wheatfarmer an have a big farmhouse an
barns an pigs an horses an cows an chickens.... Pretty curlyheaded
Nellie feedin the chickens at the kitchen door....
“Hay dere for crissake....” a man is yelling at Gus from the curb.
“Look out for de cars!”
A yelling mouth gaping under a visored cap, a green flag waving.
“Godamighty I’m on the tracks.” He yanks the horse’s head round. A
crash rips the wagon behind him. Cars, the gelding, a green flag, red
houses whirl and crumble into blackness.

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ORR MOSHE SHALIT

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International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4987-7161-0 (Hardback)

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Names: Shalit, Orr Moshe.

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1 Introduction and the Stone-Weierstrass theorem 1

1.1 Background and motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2.1 Background and motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3 Orthogonality, projections, and bases 29

4.1 Fourier series in L2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

5 Bounded linear operators on Hilbert space 61

5.1 Bounded operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

6 Hilbert function spaces 83

6.1 Reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

7 Banach spaces 103

7.1 Banach spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

8 The algebra of bounded operators on a Banach space 119

8.1 The algebra of bounded operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

9 Compact operators 137

9.1 Compact operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

10 Compact operators on Hilbert space 145

10.1 Finite rank operators on Hilbert space . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

11 Applications of the theory of compact operators 161

11.1 Integral equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

12 The Fourier transform 177

12.1 The spaces Lp (R), p ∈ [1, ∞) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

13 *The Hahn-Banach theorems 201

13.1 The Hahn-Banach theorems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Appendix A Metric and topological spaces 217

A.1 Metric spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Symbol Description 233

More details on the contents and on some choices made

gence for piecewise continuous functions, or uniform convergence for periodic

How to use this book

they appear, skipping chapters or sections that are marked by an asterisk,

Additional reading and alternative texts

1.1 Background and motivation

when considering a system of linear equations Ax = b, where x and b are

Finally, we observe that the operator K, and hence I + K, is a linear operator.

1.2 The Weierstrass approximation theorem

In the context of analysis, such a basis is called a Hamel basis, to distinguish

|p(t) − f (t)| < ǫ.

Since not every continuous function is a polynomial, we cannot hope to

|q(t) − f (t)| < ǫ.

1.3 The Stone-Weierstrass theorem

The quantity d(f, g) = kf − gk∞ defines a metric on CR (X) (and also on

real-valued, Z-periodic functions on R can be identified with the continuous,

Proof of the Stone-Weierstrass theorem

For every function f , we let |f | denote the function |f | : x 7→ |f (x)|.