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Topic 3: Separable Hilbert spaces

Infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces

Recall from Topic 1.

L^2 space

Let \lambda be a measure on \mathbb{R}, or any other field you are interested in.

A function is square integrable if


\int_\mathbb{R} |f(x)|^2 d\lambda(x)<\infty

L^2 space and general Hilbert spaces

Definition of L^2(\mathbb{R},\lambda)

The space L^2(\mathbb{R},\lambda) is the space of all square integrable, measurable functions on \mathbb{R} with respect to the measure \lambda (The Lebesgue measure).

The Hermitian inner product is defined by


\langle f,g\rangle=\int_\mathbb{R} \overline{f(x)}g(x) d\lambda(x)

The norm is defined by


\|f\|=\sqrt{\int_\mathbb{R} |f(x)|^2 d\lambda(x)}

The space L^2(\mathbb{R},\lambda) is complete.

[Proof ignored here]

Recall the definition of complete metric space.

The inner product space L^2(\mathbb{R},\lambda) is complete.

Definition of general Hilbert space

A Hilbert space is a complete inner product vector space.

General Pythagorean theorem

Let u_1,u_2,\cdots,u_N be an orthonormal set in an inner product space \mathscr{V} (may not be complete). Then for all v\in \mathscr{V},


\|v\|^2=\sum_{i=1}^N |\langle v,u_i\rangle|^2+\left\|v-\sum_{i=1}^N \langle v,u_i\rangle u_i\right\|^2

[Proof ignored here]

Bessel's inequality

Let u_1,u_2,\cdots,u_N be an orthonormal set in an inner product space \mathscr{V} (may not be complete). Then for all v\in \mathscr{V},


\sum_{i=1}^N |\langle v,u_i\rangle|^2\leq \|v\|^2

Immediate from the general Pythagorean theorem.

Orthonormal bases

An orthonormal subset S of a Hilbert space \mathscr{H} is a set all of whose elements have norm 1 and are mutually orthogonal. (\forall u,v\in S, \langle u,v\rangle=0)

Definition of orthonormal basis

An orthonormal subset of S of a Hilbert space \mathscr{H} is an orthonormal basis of \mathscr{H} if there are no other orthonormal subsets of \mathscr{H} that contain S as a proper subset.

Theorem of existence of orthonormal basis

Every separable Hilbert space has an orthonormal basis.

[Proof ignored here]

Theorem of Fourier series

Let \mathscr{H} be a separable Hilbert space with an orthonormal basis \{e_n\}. Then for any f\in \mathscr{H},


f=\sum_{n=1}^\infty \langle f,e_n\rangle e_n

The series converges to some g\in \mathscr{H}.

[Proof ignored here]

Fourier series in L^2([0,2\pi],\lambda)

Let f\in L^2([0,2\pi],\lambda).


f_N(x)=\sum_{n:|n|\leq N} c_n\frac{e^{inx}}{\sqrt{2\pi}}

where c_n=\frac{1}{2\pi}\int_0^{2\pi} f(x)e^{-inx} dx.

The series converges to some f\in L^2([0,2\pi],\lambda) as N\to \infty.

This is the Fourier series of f.

Hermite polynomials

The subspace spanned by polynomials is dense in L^2(\mathbb{R},\lambda).

An orthonormal basis of L^2(\mathbb{R},\lambda) can be obtained by the Gram-Schmidt process on \{1,x,x^2,\cdots\}.

The polynomials are called the Hermite polynomials.

Isomorphism and \ell_2 space

Definition of isomorphic Hilbert spaces

Let \mathscr{H}_1 and \mathscr{H}_2 be two Hilbert spaces.

\mathscr{H}_1 and \mathscr{H}_2 are isomorphic if there exists a surjective linear map U:\mathscr{H}_1\to \mathscr{H}_2 that is bijective and preserves the inner product.


\langle Uf,Ug\rangle=\langle f,g\rangle

for all f,g\in \mathscr{H}_1.

When \mathscr{H}_1=\mathscr{H}_2, the map U is called unitary.

\ell_2 space

The space \ell_2 is the space of all square summable sequences.


\ell_2=\left\{(a_n)_{n=1}^\infty: \sum_{n=1}^\infty |a_n|^2<\infty\right\}

An example of element in \ell_2 is (1,0,0,\cdots).

With inner product


\langle (a_n)_{n=1}^\infty, (b_n)_{n=1}^\infty\rangle=\sum_{n=1}^\infty \overline{a_n}b_n

It is a Hilbert space (every Cauchy sequence in \ell_2 converges to some element in \ell_2).

Bounded operators and continuity

Let T:\mathscr{V}\to \mathscr{W} be a linear map between two vector spaces \mathscr{V} and \mathscr{W}.

We define the norm of \|\cdot\| on \mathscr{V} and \mathscr{W}.

Then T is continuous if for all u\in \mathscr{V}, if u_n\to u in \mathscr{V}, then T(u_n)\to T(u) in \mathscr{W}.

Using the delta-epsilon language, we can say that T is continuous if for all \epsilon>0, there exists a \delta>0 such that if \|u-v\|<\delta, then \|T(u)-T(v)\|<\epsilon.

Definition of bounded operator

A linear map T:\mathscr{V}\to \mathscr{W} is bounded if


\|T\|=\sup_{\|u\|=1}\|T(u)\|< \infty

Theorem of continuity and boundedness

A linear map T:\mathscr{V}\to \mathscr{W} is continuous if and only if it is bounded.

[Proof ignored here]

Definition of bounded Hilbert space

The set of all bounded linear operators in \mathscr{V} is denoted by \mathscr{B}(\mathscr{V}).