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Martin Sleziak
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Elementary applications of Krein-Milman

This is a cross-post from MSE: Elementary applications of Krein-Milman. I'm starting to suspect that the question just doesn't really have a great answer, it's worth a try.

Recall that the Krein-Milman theorem asserts that a compact convex set in a LCTVS is the closed convex hull of its extreme points. This has lots of applications to areas of mathematics that use analysis: the existence of pure states in C*-algebra theory, the existence of irreducible representations of groups, the existence of ergodic measures...

I'm interested in applications of the theorem which are very easy to state but hard to achieve any other way. When I say "very easy to state" I mean the result should be expressible in the language of elementary Banach space or Hilbert space theory - no C*-algebras, representation theory, or measures. For an example of what I have in mind, the Krein-Milman theorem implies that C[0,1] is not the dual of any Banach space. If anyone knows an application of Krein-Milman to the theory of Fourier series, that would be ideal.

Paul Siegel
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