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81 votes
3 answers
9k views

Norms of commutators

If an $n$ by $n$ complex matrix $A$ has trace zero, then it is a commutator, which means that there are $n$ by $n$ matrices $B$ and $C$ so that $A= BC-CB$. What is the order of the best constant $\...
Bill Johnson's user avatar
  • 31.5k
77 votes
0 answers
4k views

2, 3, and 4 (a possible fixed point result ?)

The question below is related to the classical Browder-Goehde-Kirk fixed point theorem. Let $K$ be the closed unit ball of $\ell^{2}$, and let $T:K\rightarrow K$ be a mapping such that $$\Vert Tx-Ty\...
Ady's user avatar
  • 4,060
44 votes
1 answer
4k views

Example of a compact set that isn't the spectrum of an operator

This question is somewhat ill-posed (due to the word easy) and is triggered by idle curiosity: Is there an easy example of a (separable, infinite-dimensional) Banach space $X$ and a nonempty ...
Theo Buehler's user avatar
  • 5,743
43 votes
1 answer
5k views

Can $L^p(\mathbb{R})$ and $ L^q(\mathbb{R})$ be isomorphic?

Let $p,q \in (1,\infty)$ with $p\neq q$. Are the Banach spaces $L^p(\mathbb{R})$, $L^q(\mathbb{R})$ isomorphic?
Lost's user avatar
  • 559
34 votes
8 answers
9k views

When is a Banach space a Hilbert space?

Let $\mathcal{X}$ be a real or complex Banach space. It is a well known fact that $\mathcal{X}$ is a Hilbert space (i.e. the norm comes from an inner product) if the parallelogram identity holds. ...
Teiko Heinosaari's user avatar
34 votes
1 answer
3k views

tr(ab)=tr(ba), part 2.

This is a Banach space version of Andre Henriques' question Trace Question for Hilbert spaces. Let $a:X\to Y$ and $b:Y\to X$ be bounded linear operators between Banach spaces s.t. $ba$ and $ab$ ...
Bill Johnson's user avatar
  • 31.5k
32 votes
2 answers
4k views

Are there non-reflexive vector spaces isomorphic to their bi-dual?

Let $V$ be an infinite dimensional topological vector space and consider the natural application $\iota\colon V\to V^{**}$. The space $V$ is said to be reflexive if $\iota$ is an isomorphism. Are ...
diverietti's user avatar
  • 7,902
31 votes
2 answers
3k views

Is a normed space which is homeomorphic to a Banach space complete?

I have a normed space $(E,||\cdot||)$ which is homeomorphic (as a topological space) to a Banach space $F$. Does this imply that $(E,||\cdot||)$ is also a Banach space? I think I read something ...
Neslihan's user avatar
  • 495
31 votes
0 answers
2k views

Do there exist infinite-dimensional Banach spaces in which every bounded linear operator attains its norm?

Let $X$ be a Banach space, $L(X)$ the space of all bounded linear operators on $X$. We say that $A ∈ L(X)$ attains its norm if there exists $x ∈ X$ such that $\|x\| = 1$ and $\|Ax\| = \|A\|$. The ...
Mikhail Ostrovskii's user avatar
30 votes
3 answers
3k views

Surjectivity of operators on $\ell^\infty$

Can anyone give me an example of an bounded and linear operator $T:\ell^\infty\to \ell^\infty$ (the space of bounded sequences with the usual sup-norm), such that T has dense range, but is not ...
Amir's user avatar
  • 301
30 votes
1 answer
1k views

Functional-analytic proof of the existence of non-symmetric random variables with vanishing odd moments

It is known that a random variable $X$ which is symmetric about $0$ (i.e $X$ and $-X$ have the same distribution) must have all its odd moments (when they exist!) equal to zero. The converse is a ...
dohmatob's user avatar
  • 6,853
29 votes
6 answers
9k views

Nonseparable Hilbert spaces

Being nonseparable Banach space is in fact nothing special: one meets the first examples in the standard functional analysis course, when one learns about $\ell^p$ or $L^p[0,1]$ spaces-these spaces ...
truebaran's user avatar
  • 9,330
28 votes
3 answers
4k views

A separable Banach space and a non-separable Banach space having the same dual space?

I asked myself the following question when I was student just for curiosity. I asked a bit around (my professor, some researchers that I know), but nobody was able to give me an answer. So maybe it is ...
Valerio Capraro's user avatar
28 votes
2 answers
1k views

What is the Banach-Mazur distance between $\ell_\infty$ and $L_\infty$?

Given Banach spaces $X$ and $Y$, the Banach-Mazur distance between $X$ and $Y$ is defined as $$ d(X,Y) = \inf\{ \|\varphi\|\|\varphi^{-1}\| : \varphi\colon X\to Y \text{ isomorphism} \}. $$ We ...
Hannes Thiel's user avatar
  • 3,497
24 votes
2 answers
2k views

Unique predual of a Banach space

Suppose $E$ is a dual Banach space whose predual is unique, and $E_0$ is a codimension 1 weak* closed subspace of $E$. Is the predual of $E_0$ necessarily unique? Okay, I will reveal the motivation. ...
Nik Weaver's user avatar
  • 42.8k
23 votes
9 answers
2k views

Nonseparable counterexamples in analysis

When asking for uncountable counterexamples in algebra I noted that in functional analysis there are many examples of things that “go wrong” in the nonseparable setting. But most of the examples I'm ...
22 votes
3 answers
7k views

Subspace of $L^2$ that lies in $L^\infty$

Let $E$ be a closed subspace of $L^2[0,1]$. Suppose that $E\subset{}L^\infty[0,1]$. Is it true that $E$ is finite dimensional? PS. This is actually a question from the real analysis qualifier. I came ...
Rostyslav Kravchenko's user avatar
21 votes
5 answers
4k views

Isomorphisms of Banach Spaces

Suppose $X$ and $Y$ are Banach spaces whose dual spaces are isometrically isomorphic. It is certainly true that $X$ and $Y$ need not be isometrically isomorphic, but must it be true that there is a ...
Mike Hartglass's user avatar
21 votes
3 answers
3k views

Can you tell whether a space is Banach from the unit ball?

Let $V$ be a real vector space. It is well known that a subset $B\subset V$ is the unit ball for some norm on $V$ if and only if $B$ satisfies the following conditions: $B$ is convex, i.e. if $v,w\...
Jim Belk's user avatar
  • 8,493
21 votes
2 answers
1k views

Meager subspaces of a Banach space and weak-* convergence

I previously asked a version of this question on Math.SE, but didn't receive an answer. (But there is a bounty there if you want to claim it!) Let $X$ be a Banach space. (If it helps, feel free to ...
Nate Eldredge's user avatar
20 votes
2 answers
3k views

Non-differentiable Lipschitz functions

As far as I understand, there are Lipschitz functions $f:\mathbb{R}\to\ell^\infty$ that are nowhere differentiable in the Frechet sense. Where can I find such an example?
Piotr Hajlasz's user avatar
19 votes
6 answers
8k views

Unbounded operator bounded in a dense subset

Let $X, Y$ be normed vector spaces, where $X$ is infinite dimensional. Does there exist a linear map $T : X \rightarrow Y$ and a subset $D$ of $X$ such that $D$ is dense in $X$, $T$ is bounded in $D$ (...
Nicolò's user avatar
  • 783
19 votes
3 answers
1k views

What standard Banach space is isomorphic to the completion of this different normed structure on $\ell^1$?

A colleague asked me the following question: "What can one do with the following norm on $\ell^1$: $|x|=\int_1^2 |x|_pdp$ where $| \;\; |_p$ is the standard norm on $\ell_p$?" This ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
19 votes
1 answer
3k views

Infinite convex combinations in a Banach space

Let's say that a subset $C$ of a Banach space $X$ is $\sigma$-convex if the following property holds: For any sequence $(x_k)_{k\ge0}$ in $C$, and for any sequence of non-negative real numbers $(\...
Pietro Majer's user avatar
  • 60.5k
18 votes
3 answers
2k views

What are the right categories of finite-dimensional Banach spaces?

This is inspired partly by this question, especially Tom Leinster's answer. Let me start with some background. I apologize that this will be rather long, since I'm hoping for input from people who ...
Mark Meckes's user avatar
  • 11.4k
18 votes
1 answer
564 views

Is the space of Hankel operators complemented in B(H)?

Let $H$ be $\ell^2({\mathbb N})$ and let $S:H\to H$ be the unilateral forward shift, so that $S^*S=I\neq SS^*$. Then a bounded operator $T:H\to H$ is Hankel if and only if it satisfies $TS=S^*T$. Let ...
Yemon Choi's user avatar
  • 25.8k
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

Are "most" operators on an infinite-dimensional complex Banach space "diagonalizable"?

This is true for finite-dimensional spaces: the diagonal operators on a finite dimensional complex vector space form contain a dense open set and the nondiagonalizable operators have measure 0. To be ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 63.9k
17 votes
4 answers
2k views

Banach-Mazur applied to a Hilbert space

The Banach-Mazur theorem says that every separable Banach space is isometric to a subspace of $C^0([0;1],R)$, the space of continuous real valued functions on the interval $[0;1]$, with the sup norm. ...
Laurent Berger's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
912 views

$(1+\epsilon)$-injective Banach spaces, complex scalars

It is well known that a real Banach space which is $(1+\epsilon)$-injective for every $\epsilon >0$ is already 1-injective (Lindenstrauss Memoirs AMS, 1964, download here). Using common ...
Fred Dashiell's user avatar
17 votes
0 answers
488 views

Large almost equilateral sets in finite-dimensional Banach spaces

Question: Does there exist a function $C:~(0,1)\to (0,\infty)$ such that for each $\varepsilon\in(0,1)$ every Banach space $X$ of dimension $\ge C(\varepsilon)\log n$ contains an $n$-point set $\{x_i\...
Mikhail Ostrovskii's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
1k views

A natural center of a convex weakly compact set in Banach space

Question: Let $S$ be a convex weakly compact set in Banach space $H$. Propose a natural way to define the unique center $O \in S$. Motivation: A lot! For example, in game theory $S$ can be a set of ...
Bogdan's user avatar
  • 161
16 votes
6 answers
2k views

Finding closed subspaces whose sum isn't closed

Let $V_0$ be a closed infinite-dimensional subspace of a Banach space $V$ such that the quotient $V/V_0$ is also infinite-dimensional. Is it always possible to find a closed subspace of $V$ whose sum ...
Nik Weaver's user avatar
  • 42.8k
16 votes
2 answers
682 views

Ultraweak topology on B(X): Is the map X\otimes X* -> B(X)* isometric?

Let $X$ be a Banach space. Consider the map $$ \alpha\colon X\hat{\otimes} X^* \to B(X)^*, $$ defined one simple tensors as $$ \alpha(\xi\otimes\eta)(a) = \eta(a(\xi)).\quad (\xi\in X, \eta\in X^*, a\...
Hannes Thiel's user avatar
  • 3,497
16 votes
2 answers
4k views

Usefulness of Frechet versus Gateaux differentiability or something in between.

If you have a function $V: L \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, where $L$ is an infinite dimensional topological vector space, there are multiple notions of differentiability. For $x,u \in L$, $V$ is Gateaux ...
weakstar's user avatar
  • 943
16 votes
1 answer
2k views

What (classes of) Banach spaces are known to have Schauder basis?

Motivation: I am trying to see for what class of Banach spaces the following result is true: There exists an increasing sequence of finite dimensional subspace {$V_n$} of a Banach space X (with ...
Clark Chong's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
542 views

$C^*$-algebra generated by those operators that are bounded on every $\ell_p$

Suppose $T: c_{00} \to c_{00}$ is a linear map such that, when regarded as an infinite matrix, there is a uniform bound on the $\ell_1$-norms of its columns, and a uniform bound on the $\ell_1$-norms ...
Yemon Choi's user avatar
  • 25.8k
16 votes
0 answers
1k views

Finite Rank Commutators

My former student Detelin Dosev and I are interested in classifying the commutators in $L(X)$, the bounded linear operators on the Banach space $X$ (see our joint paper on my home page or the ArXiv ...
Bill Johnson's user avatar
  • 31.5k
15 votes
5 answers
2k views

Between Tietze's and Dugundji's extension theorems

The celebrated Tietze extension theorem asserts that any continuous real-valued function defined on a closed subset of a normal space, can be extended to a continuous function on the whole space. Seen ...
Pietro Majer's user avatar
  • 60.5k
15 votes
3 answers
8k views

What is an isomorphism of Banach spaces?

The nLab page on Banach spaces (http://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/Banach%20space) was recently criticised as being, in effect, too heavily biased to category theory (not of the Baire kind) and not enough ...
Andrew Stacey's user avatar
15 votes
5 answers
680 views

Idiosyncratic characterizations of $\ell^p$, for $p\not=1,2,\infty$

Do there exist, either in the literature or in folklore, theorems that characterize some particular $\ell^p$ space(s) ($p\not=1,2,\infty$)? Such a theorem should reveal the particular space(s) as ...
David Feldman's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
2k views

In infinite dimensions, is it possible that convergence of distances to a sequence always implies convergence of that sequence?

This is a cross-posted on MSE here. Let $(X,d)$ be a metric space. Say that $x_n\in X$ is a P-sequence if $\lim_{n\rightarrow\infty}d(x_n,y)$ converges for every $y\in X.$ Say that $(X,d)$ is P-...
Nikhil Sahoo's user avatar
  • 1,225
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Intersection of complemented subspaces of a Banach space

The following seems a very basic question in the theory of complemented subspaces of Banach spaces, but I was not able to find a reference, so I wish to ask it here. Question. Let $X$ be a Banach ...
Pietro Majer's user avatar
  • 60.5k
15 votes
2 answers
660 views

Multiple of identity plus compact

Is there an example of a bounded operator $T\in\mathcal{B}(H)$, where $H$ is a separable complex Hilbert space, such that no restriction to an infinite dimensional closed subspace is multiple of ...
user129564's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
2k views

Quotients of $\ell_\infty$ by separable subspaces

Given a (closed) separable subspace $M$ of $\ell_\infty$, I am interested in conditions implying that the quotient $\ell_\infty/M$ is isomorphic to a subspace of $\ell_\infty$. It is not difficult ...
M.González's user avatar
  • 4,461
15 votes
3 answers
2k views

Disintegrations are measurable measures - when are they continuous?

This is a sequel to another question I have asked. The notion of disintegration is a refinement of conditional probability to spaces which have more structure than abstract probability spaces; ...
Tom LaGatta's user avatar
  • 8,512
15 votes
1 answer
441 views

Weak*-closure of finite rank operators on dual space

Given a Banach space $X$, we consider the space $B(X^*)$ of bounded, linear operators on $X^*$ with the weak*-topology from its canonical predual $B(X^*)_*=X^*\hat{\otimes}X$. What is $\overline{F(X^*)...
Hannes Thiel's user avatar
  • 3,497
15 votes
1 answer
889 views

Operator norms of circulant matrices

The definition and basic properties of circulant matrices can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circulant_matrix. For complex numbers $a_1,\ldots,a_n$, I will use the notation $$ \mbox{...
Eusebio Gardella's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
4k views

Is there a simple direct proof of the Open Mapping Theorem from the Uniform Boundedness Theorem?

The Open Mapping Theorem, the Bounded Inverse Theorem, and the Closed Graph Theorem are equivalent theorems in that any can be easily obtained from any other. The Closed Graph Theorem also easily ...
Bruce Blackadar's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
931 views

Distinguishing topologically weak topologies of Banach spaces

Are the weak topologies of $\ell_1$ and $L_1$ homeomorphic? Strangely may it sound, the question seeks contrasts between norm and weak topologies of Banach spaces from the non-linear point of view. ...
Tomasz Kania's user avatar
  • 11.3k
14 votes
4 answers
550 views

About the existence of characters on $B(X)$

Let $X$ be a Banach space. Let $B(X)$ be the space of all bounded linear operators on $X$. Does $B(X)$ have an empty character space for any $X$? I know the proof of the fact that $M_n(\mathbb{C})$ ...
User93709's user avatar
  • 355

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