Topological vector space explained
In mathematics, a topological vector space (also called a linear topological space and commonly abbreviated TVS or t.v.s.) is one of the basic structures investigated in functional analysis.A topological vector space is a vector space that is also a topological space with the property that the vector space operations (vector addition and scalar multiplication) are also continuous functions. Such a topology is called a and every topological vector space has a uniform topological structure, allowing a notion of uniform convergence and completeness. Some authors also require that the space is a Hausdorff space (although this article does not). One of the most widely studied categories of TVSs are locally convex topological vector spaces. This article focuses on TVSs that are not necessarily locally convex. Other well-known examples of TVSs include Banach spaces, Hilbert spaces and Sobolev spaces.
Many topological vector spaces are spaces of functions, or linear operators acting on topological vector spaces, and the topology is often defined so as to capture a particular notion of convergence of sequences of functions.
In this article, the scalar field of a topological vector space will be assumed to be either the complex numbers
or the
real numbers
unless clearly stated otherwise.
Motivation
Normed spaces
Every normed vector space has a natural topological structure: the norm induces a metric and the metric induces a topology.This is a topological vector space because:
- The vector addition map
defined by
is (jointly) continuous with respect to this topology. This follows directly from the
triangle inequality obeyed by the norm.
- The scalar multiplication map
defined by
where
is the underlying scalar field of
is (jointly) continuous. This follows from the triangle inequality and homogeneity of the norm.
Thus all Banach spaces and Hilbert spaces are examples of topological vector spaces.
Non-normed spaces
There are topological vector spaces whose topology is not induced by a norm, but are still of interest in analysis. Examples of such spaces are spaces of holomorphic functions on an open domain, spaces of infinitely differentiable functions, the Schwartz spaces, and spaces of test functions and the spaces of distributions on them. These are all examples of Montel spaces. An infinite-dimensional Montel space is never normable. The existence of a norm for a given topological vector space is characterized by Kolmogorov's normability criterion.
A topological field is a topological vector space over each of its subfields.
Definition
A topological vector space (TVS)
is a
vector space over a topological field
(most often the
real or
complex numbers with their standard topologies) that is endowed with a
topology such that vector addition
and scalar multiplication
are continuous functions (where the domains of these functions are endowed with
product topologies). Such a topology is called a
or a
on
Every topological vector space is also a commutative topological group under addition.
Hausdorff assumption
Many authors (for example, Walter Rudin), but not this page, require the topology on
to be
T1; it then follows that the space is
Hausdorff, and even
Tychonoff. A topological vector space is said to be if it is Hausdorff; importantly, "separated" does not mean
separable. The topological and linear algebraic structures can be tied together even more closely with additional assumptions, the most common of which are listed below.
Category and morphisms
The category of topological vector spaces over a given topological field
is commonly denoted
or
The
objects are the topological vector spaces over
and the
morphisms are the
continuous
-linear maps from one object to another.
between topological vector spaces (TVSs) such that the induced map
is an
open mapping when
\operatorname{Im}u:=u(X),
which is the range or image of
is given the
subspace topology induced by
A (abbreviated), also called a, is an injective topological homomorphism. Equivalently, a TVS-embedding is a linear map that is also a topological embedding.
A (abbreviated), also called a or an, is a bijective linear homeomorphism. Equivalently, it is a surjective TVS embedding
Many properties of TVSs that are studied, such as local convexity, metrizability, completeness, and normability, are invariant under TVS isomorphisms.
A necessary condition for a vector topology
A collection
of subsets of a vector space is called if for every
there exists some
such that
All of the above conditions are consequently a necessity for a topology to form a vector topology.
Defining topologies using neighborhoods of the origin
Since every vector topology is translation invariant (which means that for all
the map
defined by
is a
homeomorphism), to define a vector topology it suffices to define a neighborhood basis (or subbasis) for it at the origin.
In general, the set of all balanced and absorbing subsets of a vector space does not satisfy the conditions of this theorem and does not form a neighborhood basis at the origin for any vector topology.
Defining topologies using strings
Let
be a vector space and let
be a sequence of subsets of
Each set in the sequence
is called a
of
and for every index
is called the
-th knot of
The set
is called the
beginning of
The sequence
is/is a:
for every index
is summative, absorbing, and balanced.
if
is a string and each of its knots is a neighborhood of the origin in
If
is an
absorbing disk in a vector space
then the sequence defined by
forms a string beginning with
This is called the
natural string of
Moreover, if a vector space
has countable dimension then every string contains an
absolutely convex string.
Summative sequences of sets have the particularly nice property that they define non-negative continuous real-valued subadditive functions. These functions can then be used to prove many of the basic properties of topological vector spaces.
A proof of the above theorem is given in the article on metrizable topological vector spaces.
If
and
are two collections of subsets of a vector space
and if
is a scalar, then by definition:
contains
:
if and only if
for every index
\operatorname{Knots}U\bull:=\left\{Ui:i\in\N\right\}.
- Kernel:
- Scalar multiple:
sU\bull:=\left(sUi\right)i.
U\bull+V\bull:=\left(Ui+Vi\right)i.
U\bull\capV\bull:=\left(Ui\capVi\right)i.
If
is a collection sequences of subsets of
then
is said to be
directed (
downwards)
under inclusion or simply
directed downward if
is not empty and for all
there exists some
such that
and
(said differently, if and only if
is a
prefilter with respect to the containment
defined above).
Notation: Let be the set of all knots of all strings in
Defining vector topologies using collections of strings is particularly useful for defining classes of TVSs that are not necessarily locally convex.
If
is the set of all topological strings in a TVS
then
A Hausdorff TVS is
metrizable if and only if its topology can be induced by a single topological string.
Topological structure
A vector space is an abelian group with respect to the operation of addition, and in a topological vector space the inverse operation is always continuous (since it is the same as multiplication by
). Hence, every topological vector space is an abelian
topological group. Every TVS is
completely regular but a TVS need not be
normal.
Let
be a topological vector space. Given a
subspace
the quotient space
with the usual
quotient topology is a Hausdorff topological vector space if and only if
is closed.
[2] This permits the following construction: given a topological vector space
(that is probably not Hausdorff), form the quotient space
where
is the closure of
is then a Hausdorff topological vector space that can be studied instead of
Invariance of vector topologies
One of the most used properties of vector topologies is that every vector topology is :
for all
the map
defined by
is a
homeomorphism, but if
then it is not linear and so not a TVS-isomorphism.Scalar multiplication by a non-zero scalar is a TVS-isomorphism. This means that if
then the linear map
defined by
is a homeomorphism. Using
produces the negation map
defined by
which is consequently a linear homeomorphism and thus a TVS-isomorphism.
If
and any subset
then
\operatorname{cl}X(x+S)=x+\operatorname{cl}XS
and moreover, if
then
is a
neighborhood (resp. open neighborhood, closed neighborhood) of
in
if and only if the same is true of
at the origin.
Local notions
A subset
of a vector space
is said to be
): if for every
there exists a real
such that
for any scalar
satisfying
for every scalar
for every real
is convex and balanced.
or equivalently, if
Every neighborhood of the origin is an absorbing set and contains an open balanced neighborhood of
so every topological vector space has a local base of absorbing and
balanced sets. The origin even has a neighborhood basis consisting of closed balanced neighborhoods of
if the space is
locally convex then it also has a neighborhood basis consisting of closed convex balanced neighborhoods of the origin.
Bounded subsets
A subset
of a topological vector space
is
bounded if for every neighborhood
of the origin there exists
such that
.
The definition of boundedness can be weakened a bit;
is bounded if and only if every countable subset of it is bounded. A set is bounded if and only if each of its subsequences is a bounded set. Also,
is bounded if and only if for every balanced neighborhood
of the origin, there exists
such that
Moreover, when
is locally convex, the boundedness can be characterized by
seminorms: the subset
is bounded if and only if every continuous seminorm
is bounded on
Every totally bounded set is bounded. If
is a vector subspace of a TVS
then a subset of
is bounded in
if and only if it is bounded in
Metrizability
A TVS is pseudometrizable if and only if it has a countable neighborhood basis at the origin, or equivalent, if and only if its topology is generated by an F-seminorm. A TVS is metrizable if and only if it is Hausdorff and pseudometrizable.
More strongly: a topological vector space is said to be normable if its topology can be induced by a norm. A topological vector space is normable if and only if it is Hausdorff and has a convex bounded neighborhood of the origin.
Let
be a non-
discrete locally compact topological field, for example the real or complex numbers. A
Hausdorff topological vector space over
is locally compact if and only if it is
finite-dimensional, that is, isomorphic to
for some natural number
Completeness and uniform structure
See main article: Complete topological vector space.
The canonical uniformity on a TVS
is the unique translation-invariant
uniformity that induces the topology
on
Every TVS is assumed to be endowed with this canonical uniformity, which makes all TVSs into uniform spaces. This allows one to talk about related notions such as completeness, uniform convergence, Cauchy nets, and uniform continuity, etc., which are always assumed to be with respect to this uniformity (unless indicated other). This implies that every Hausdorff topological vector space is Tychonoff. A subset of a TVS is compact if and only if it is complete and totally bounded (for Hausdorff TVSs, a set being totally bounded is equivalent to it being precompact). But if the TVS is not Hausdorff then there exist compact subsets that are not closed. However, the closure of a compact subset of a non-Hausdorff TVS is again compact (so compact subsets are relatively compact).
With respect to this uniformity, a net (or sequence)
is
Cauchy if and only if for every neighborhood
of
there exists some index
such that
whenever
and
Every Cauchy sequence is bounded, although Cauchy nets and Cauchy filters may not be bounded. A topological vector space where every Cauchy sequence converges is called sequentially complete; in general, it may not be complete (in the sense that all Cauchy filters converge).
The vector space operation of addition is uniformly continuous and an open map. Scalar multiplication is Cauchy continuous but in general, it is almost never uniformly continuous. Because of this, every topological vector space can be completed and is thus a dense linear subspace of a complete topological vector space.
- Every TVS has a completion and every Hausdorff TVS has a Hausdorff completion. Every TVS (even those that are Hausdorff and/or complete) has infinitely many non-isomorphic non-Hausdorff completions.
- A compact subset of a TVS (not necessarily Hausdorff) is complete. A complete subset of a Hausdorff TVS is closed.
- If
is a complete subset of a TVS then any subset of
that is closed in
is complete.
- A Cauchy sequence in a Hausdorff TVS
is not necessarily
relatively compact (that is, its closure in
is not necessarily compact).
then it converges to
- If a series converges[3] in a TVS
then
in
Examples
Finest and coarsest vector topology
Let
be a real or complex vector space.
Trivial topology
The trivial topology or indiscrete topology
is always a TVS topology on any vector space
and it is the coarsest TVS topology possible. An important consequence of this is that the intersection of any collection of TVS topologies on
always contains a TVS topology. Any vector space (including those that are infinite dimensional) endowed with the trivial topology is a compact (and thus
locally compact)
complete pseudometrizable seminormable
locally convex topological vector space. It is
Hausdorff if and only if
Finest vector topology
There exists a TVS topology
on
called the
on
that is finer than every other TVS-topology on
(that is, any TVS-topology on
is necessarily a subset of
).
[4] Every linear map from
into another TVS is necessarily continuous. If
has an uncountable Hamel basis then
is
locally convex and
metrizable.
Cartesian products
A Cartesian product of a family of topological vector spaces, when endowed with the product topology, is a topological vector space. Consider for instance the set
of all functions
where
carries its usual
Euclidean topology. This set
is a real vector space (where addition and scalar multiplication are defined pointwise, as usual) that can be identified with (and indeed, is often defined to be) the
Cartesian product
which carries the natural
product topology. With this product topology,
becomes a topological vector space whose topology is called The reason for this name is the following: if
is a
sequence (or more generally, a
net) of elements in
and if
then
converges to
in
if and only if for every real number
converges to
in
This TVS is
complete,
Hausdorff, and
locally convex but not
metrizable and consequently not normable; indeed, every neighborhood of the origin in the product topology contains lines (that is, 1-dimensional vector subspaces, which are subsets of the form
with
).
Finite-dimensional spaces
By F. Riesz's theorem, a Hausdorff topological vector space is finite-dimensional if and only if it is locally compact, which happens if and only if it has a compact neighborhood of the origin.
Let
denote
or
and endow
with its usual Hausdorff normed
Euclidean topology. Let
be a vector space over
of finite dimension
and so that
is vector space isomorphic to
(explicitly, this means that there exists a
linear isomorphism between the vector spaces
and
). This finite-dimensional vector space
always has a unique vector topology, which makes it TVS-isomorphic to
where
is endowed with the usual Euclidean topology (which is the same as the
product topology). This Hausdorff vector topology is also the (unique)
finest vector topology on
has a unique vector topology if and only if
If
then although
does not have a unique vector topology, it does have a unique vector topology.
then
has exactly one vector topology: the
trivial topology, which in this case (and in this case) is Hausdorff. The trivial topology on a vector space is Hausdorff if and only if the vector space has dimension
then
has two vector topologies: the usual
Euclidean topology and the (non-Hausdorff) trivial topology.
is itself a
-dimensional topological vector space over
and since it plays an important role in the definition of topological vector spaces, this dichotomy plays an important role in the definition of an
absorbing set and has consequences that reverberate throughout
functional analysis.
then
has distinct vector topologies:
- Some of these topologies are now described: Every linear functional
on
which is vector space isomorphic to
induces a
seminorm
defined by
where
Every seminorm induces a (
pseudometrizable locally convex) vector topology on
and seminorms with distinct kernels induce distinct topologies so that in particular, seminorms on
that are induced by linear functionals with distinct kernels will induce distinct vector topologies on
- However, while there are infinitely many vector topologies on
when
there are,, only
vector topologies on
For instance, if
then the vector topologies on
consist of the trivial topology, the Hausdorff Euclidean topology, and then the infinitely many remaining non-trivial non-Euclidean vector topologies on
are all TVS-isomorphic to one another.
Non-vector topologies
Discrete and cofinite topologies
If
is a non-trivial vector space (that is, of non-zero dimension) then the
discrete topology on
(which is always
metrizable) is a TVS topology because despite making addition and negation continuous (which makes it into a
topological group under addition), it fails to make scalar multiplication continuous. The cofinite topology on
(where a subset is open if and only if its complement is finite) is also a TVS topology on
Linear maps
A linear operator between two topological vector spaces which is continuous at one point is continuous on the whole domain. Moreover, a linear operator
is continuous if
is bounded (as defined below) for some neighborhood
of the origin.
A hyperplane in a topological vector space
is either dense or closed. A
linear functional
on a topological vector space
has either dense or closed kernel. Moreover,
is continuous if and only if its
kernel is
closed.
Types
Depending on the application additional constraints are usually enforced on the topological structure of the space. In fact, several principal results in functional analysis fail to hold in general for topological vector spaces: the closed graph theorem, the open mapping theorem, and the fact that the dual space of the space separates points in the space.
Below are some common topological vector spaces, roughly in order of increasing "niceness."
- F-spaces are complete topological vector spaces with a translation-invariant metric. These include
spaces for all
spaces are locally convex (in fact, Banach spaces) for all
but not for
is a Fréchet space under the seminorms
A locally convex F-space is a Fréchet space.
- LF-spaces are limits of Fréchet spaces. ILH spaces are inverse limits of Hilbert spaces.
- Nuclear spaces: these are locally convex spaces with the property that every bounded map from the nuclear space to an arbitrary Banach space is a nuclear operator.
- Normed spaces and seminormed spaces: locally convex spaces where the topology can be described by a single norm or seminorm. In normed spaces a linear operator is continuous if and only if it is bounded.
- Banach spaces: Complete normed vector spaces. Most of functional analysis is formulated for Banach spaces. This class includes the
spaces with
the space
of
functions of bounded variation, and
certain spaces of measures.
- Reflexive Banach spaces: Banach spaces naturally isomorphic to their double dual (see below), which ensures that some geometrical arguments can be carried out. An important example which is reflexive is
, whose dual is
but is strictly contained in the dual of
- Hilbert spaces: these have an inner product; even though these spaces may be infinite-dimensional, most geometrical reasoning familiar from finite dimensions can be carried out in them. These include
spaces, the
Sobolev spaces
and
Hardy spaces.
or
with the topology induced by the standard inner product. As pointed out in the preceding section, for a given finite
there is only one
-dimensional topological vector space, up to isomorphism. It follows from this that any finite-dimensional subspace of a TVS is closed. A characterization of finite dimensionality is that a Hausdorff TVS is locally compact if and only if it is finite-dimensional (therefore isomorphic to some Euclidean space).
Dual space
See main article: Strong dual space.
Every topological vector space has a continuous dual space - the set
of all continuous linear functionals, that is,
continuous linear maps from the space into the base field
A topology on the dual can be defined to be the coarsest topology such that the dual pairing each point evaluation
is continuous. This turns the dual into a locally convex topological vector space. This topology is called the
weak-* topology. This may not be the only natural topology on the dual space; for instance, the dual of a normed space has a natural norm defined on it. However, it is very important in applications because of its compactness properties (see
Banach–Alaoglu theorem). Caution: Whenever
is a non-normable locally convex space, then the pairing map
is never continuous, no matter which vector space topology one chooses on
A topological vector space has a non-trivial continuous dual space if and only if it has a proper convex neighborhood of the origin.
Properties
For any
of a TVS
the
convex (resp.
balanced, disked, closed convex, closed balanced, closed disked) hull
of
is the smallest subset of
that has this property and contains
The closure (respectively, interior, convex hull, balanced hull, disked hull) of a set
is sometimes denoted by
(respectively,
).
of a subset
is equal to the set of all of elements in
which are finite
linear combinations of the form
where
is an integer,
and
sum to
The intersection of any family of convex sets is convex and the convex hull of a subset is equal to the intersection of all convex sets that contain it.
Neighborhoods and open sets
Properties of neighborhoods and open sets
Every TVS is connected and locally connected and any connected open subset of a TVS is arcwise connected. If
and
is an open subset of
then
is an open set in
and if
has non-empty interior then
is a neighborhood of the origin.
The open convex subsets of a TVS
(not necessarily Hausdorff or locally convex) are exactly those that are of the form
for some
and some positive continuous
sublinear functional
on
If
is an
absorbing disk in a TVS
and if
is the
Minkowski functional of
then
where importantly, it was assumed that
had any topological properties nor that
was continuous (which happens if and only if
is a neighborhood of the origin).
Let
and
be two vector topologies on
Then
if and only if whenever a net
in
converges
in
then
in
Let
be a neighborhood basis of the origin in
let
and let
Then
if and only if there exists a net
} in
(indexed by
) such that
in
This shows, in particular, that it will often suffice to consider nets indexed by a neighborhood basis of the origin rather than nets on arbitrary directed sets.
If
is a TVS that is of the
second category in itself (that is, a nonmeager space) then any closed convex
absorbing subset of
is a neighborhood of the origin. This is no longer guaranteed if the set is not convex (a counter-example exists even in
) or if
is not of the second category in itself.
Interior
If
and
has non-empty interior then
and
The topological interior of a disk is not empty if and only if this interior contains the origin. More generally, if
is a
balanced set with non-empty interior
\operatorname{Int}XS ≠ \varnothing
in a TVS
then
\{0\}\cup\operatorname{Int}XS
will necessarily be balanced; consequently,
will be balanced if and only if it contains the origin.
[5] For this (i.e.
) to be true, it suffices for
to also be convex (in addition to being balanced and having non-empty interior).; The conclusion
could be false if
is not also convex; for example, in
the interior of the closed and balanced set
is
If
is convex and
then
t\operatorname{Int}C+(1-t)\operatorname{cl}C~\subseteq~\operatorname{Int}C.
Explicitly, this means that if
is a convex subset of a TVS
(not necessarily Hausdorff or locally convex),
y\in\operatorname{int}XC,
and
then the open line segment joining
and
belongs to the interior of
that is,
\{tx+(1-t)y:0<t<1\}\subseteq\operatorname{int}XC.
[6] If
is any balanced neighborhood of the origin in
then
where
is the set of all scalars
such that
If
belongs to the interior of a convex set
and
then the half-open line segment
belongs to
By replacing
with
if necessary, we may assume without loss of generality that
and so it remains to show that
is a neighborhood of the origin. Let
s~\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyledef
}~ \tfrac < 0 so that
Since scalar multiplication by
is a linear homeomorphism
\operatorname{cl}X\left(\tfrac{1}{s}C\right)=\tfrac{1}{s}\operatorname{cl}XC.
Since
and
it follows that
x=\tfrac{1}{s}y\in\operatorname{cl}\left(\tfrac{1}{s}C\right)\cap\operatorname{int}C
where because
is open, there exists some
c0\in\left(\tfrac{1}{s}C\right)\cap\operatorname{int}C,
which satisfies
Define
by
x\mapstorx+(1-r)sc0=rx-rc0,
which is a homeomorphism because
The set
h\left(\operatorname{int}C\right)
is thus an open subset of
that moreover contains
h(c_0) = r c_0 - r c_0 = 0. If
then
h(c) = r c + (1 - r) s c_0 \in C since
is convex,
and
which proves that
h\left(\operatorname{int}C\right)\subseteqC.
Thus
h\left(\operatorname{int}C\right)
is an open subset of
that contains the origin and is contained in
Q.E.D.
Since
has the trivial topology, so does each of its subsets, which makes them all compact. It is known that a subset of any uniform space is compact if and only if it is complete and totally bounded.
In general topology, the closure of a compact subset of a non-Hausdorff space may fail to be compact (for example, the particular point topology on an infinite set). This result shows that this does not happen in non-Hausdorff TVSs. S+\operatorname{cl}X\{0\}
is compact because it is the image of the compact set S x \operatorname{cl}X\{0\}
under the continuous addition map
Recall also that the sum of a compact set (that is,
) and a closed set is closed so S+\operatorname{cl}X\{0\}
is closed in
If
then s+\operatorname{cl}X\{0\}=\operatorname{cl}X(s+\{0\})=\operatorname{cl}X\{s\}\subseteq\operatorname{cl}XS.
Because S\subseteqS+\operatorname{cl}X\{0\}\subseteq\operatorname{cl}XS,
if
is closed then equality holds. Using the fact that
is a vector space, it is readily verified that the complement in
of any set
satisfying the equality S+\operatorname{cl}X\{0\}=S
must also satisfy this equality (when
is substituted for
).
In
the sum of the
-axis and the graph of
which is the complement of the
-axis, is open in
In
the Minkowski sum
is a countable dense subset of
so not closed in
z + \ = \ = \ and so using
and the fact that
this is equal to \ = \ = \. Q.E.D.