MTHS 8210

Project

Fall 2013

DUE DATE: Tuesday, December 10. Let H be a Hilbert space. A bounded operator K : H H is said to be compact operator if the image of the unit ball B H under K is a precompact set., i.e., if K (B ) = {Kx, x 1} is precompact set in H. 1. (4 points) Prove that K is a compact operator if and only if for every sequence {xn } H the sequence {Kxn } has a convergent subsequence. 2. (4 points) If T : H H is a bounded operator and K : H H is compact prove that their compositions T K and KT are compact. Hint: Use problem 1. (As in the case of matrices the composition of T and K is usually written as T K and denes a product of operators. Therefore, in this problem you are showing that the set of all compact operators is an ideal in the set of all bounded operators.) 3. (4 points) Prove that a compact operator K always maps a weakly convergent sequence into a strongly convergent one. Hint: Use that fact (proved in class) that every weakly convergent sequence must be bounded and therefore contained in some large enough ball. 4. (10 points) Let K be a compact operator which is self-adjoint, i.e., K = K . (a) Prove that there exists a vector y H such that Ky, y = sup Kx, x .
x =1

Hint: Consider the sequence {yn } such that yn = 1 for all n and Kyn , yn > sup x =1 Kx, x 1/n. Use this sequence to show the existence of such y . (b) Prove that this vector y also maximizes the function R(x) = Kx,x over all x H. x 2 (c) For an arbitrary xed w H consider the function f (t) = R(y + tw) as a function of t R. Use calculus, the fact that K is self-adjoint, and (b) to prove that the real part of Ky y, w is zero, where = Ky, y . (d) Use (c) to prove that y is an eigenvector of K corresponding to the eigenvalue dened in (c). 5. (8 points) Let K be a compact self-adjoint operator on a separable Hilbert space H. (a) Let K be a closed subspace of H which is invariant under K , i. e, K (K) K. Prove that K is also invariant under K . (b) Let {yn } be the sequence of all eigenvectors of K . Prove that K := span{yn } is invariant under K and then use (a) and part (d) from problem 4 to prove that {yn } is complete in H. (c) Prove that the eigenvectors of K are orthogonal to each other. Use this and (b) to conclude that K has an orthonormal basis of eigenvectors. (d) Prove that all the eigenvalues of K are real and that in case there are innitely many of them they must converge to 0. Hint: For the second part prove rst that the eigenvectors, being orthonormal, must converge weakly to zero. Then use problem 3.