Economics 712

Steven N. Durlauf
Fall 2010

Lecture Notes 1. Linear Space Theory

Much of time series analysis is based on the construction of linear

decompositions of the processes under study. This approach, in turn, is based
on various results from the mathematics of linear spaces. Linear spaces are
sometimes called vector spaces. These lecture notes describe some basic
definitions and results. The results are all standard. I follow Royden (1988) and
Simmons (1963) closely in terms of presentation. Ash (1976) chapter 3 is also
useful.

1. Basic definitions

All of the spaces we work with will represent refinements of the concept of
a linear space. Following Simmons (1963 p. 80)

Definition 1.1.1 Linear space

Let Γ denote a non-empty set. For each pair of elements γ i and γ j contained in

Γ , assume that there exists an addition operation, + which combines paris of

elements to produce an element, γ i + γ j , which is also contained in Γ . Suppose

that for the combination of the set Γ and the addition operation, the following
hold:

i. γ i + γ j = γ j + γ i

ii. γ i + (γ j + γ k ) = (γ i + γ j ) + γ k

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iii. Γ contains a unique element, 0, such that γ + 0 =
γ ∀γ ∈ Γ

iv. For each γ ∈ Γ ∃ an element −γ such that γ + ( −γ ) =0

Further, for any scalar element c of the set of complex numbers C, assume that
c may be combined with any γ ∈ Γ to produce an element of Γ cγ . This is the
multiplication operation. Suppose that for the combination of the set and the
multiplication operation, the following hold:

v. c (γ i + γ j ) = cγ i + cγ j

vi. (c + d )γ =cγ + d γ

vii. ( cd ) γ = c ( d γ )

viii. 1γ = γ

Then, the set Γ , addition operator and multiplication operator together define a
linear space.

Two comments. First, one can replace the set of complex numbers with
the set of real numbers R and define a linear space analogously. We will use
real and complex weights in different contexts. Second, notice that the addition
and multiplication operators are defined to according to how they operate on
elements of Γ . Thus the definition of a linear space is quite general, we will work
with linear spaces of number, functions, etc.
In essence, the definition of a linear space requires that the space is
closed with respect to addition of any pair of elements of the space and that
multiplying any element by a scalar produces another element of the space. This
definition does not require the space to be complete. A space is complete when
the limit of every sequence of elements in the space is also a element of the

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space. One reason why it is useful to work with a complete space concerns
optimization. In order to rigorously discuss whether the space is complete, it is
necessary to equip the linear space with a norm. A norm is a function that
defines distances between elements of a space. This definition is required to
fulfill certain properties.

Definition 1.1.2. Norm

For a linear space Γ , a norm, denoted as ⋅ , is a mapping from Γ to R such

that

i. γ ≥ 0; γ = 0 → γ = 0

ii. cγ = c γ ∀ c ∈C

iii. γ i + γ j ≤ γ i + γ j

The first condition requires the norm to measure something interpretable

as a length. The second condition requires that the norm is linear. The third
condition is the triangle inequality. This is a hint that intuitions about 3-
dimensional Euclidean space that we have from elementary geometry will apply
to more general spaces. The next definition will come as no surprise.

Definition 1.1.3. Normed linear space

A normed linear space is a linear space equipped with a norm.

When a space is endowed with a norm, one can discuss the convergence
properties of various sequences of elements in the space. An important type of
sequence is a Cauchy sequence.

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Definition 1.1.4. Cauchy sequence

The sequence γ i is a Cauchy sequence if, for any ε > 0 , there exists an I (which
may depend on ε ) such that for all i , j > I γ i − γ j < ε .

The notion of a Cauchy sequence naturally leads to the notion of a limit

point for the sequence.

Definition 1.1.5. Limit of a Cauchy sequence

The element γ is the limit to Cauchy sequence γ i if, for any ε > 0 , there exists
an I (which may depend on ε ) such that for all i > I , γ i − γ < ε

This definition naturally leads to

Definition 1.1.6. Completeness

A linear space Γ is complete if the limit to every Cauchy sequence in the space
is an element of the space.

It is not necessarily true that the limit point of Cauchy sequence is an

element of a normed. Normed linear spaces that are complete form an important
class of spaces, known as Banach spaces.

Definition 1.1.7. Banach space

A Banach space is a complete normed linear space.

A noted, the norm function provides a way of measuring the magnitude of

an element γ i ; it also provides a measure of the distance between two elements,

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 γ i − γ j . It is important to also be able to characterize the relationship between

pairs of elements relative to one another. The key notion for this is the inner
product of two elements of a space. For the complex number c , c denotes its
complex conjugate.

Definition 1.1.8. Inner product

An inner product function 〈⋅, ⋅〉 is a mapping from Γ × Γ to C such that

i. 〈aγ i + bγ j , γ k 〉 = a〈γ i , γ k 〉 + b〈γ j , γ k 〉

ii. 〈γ i , γ j 〉 =
〈γ j , γ i 〉

iii. 〈γ i , γ i 〉 ≥ 0

iv. 〈γ i , γ i 〉 = 0 → γ i = 0

Our final definition describes Banach spaces where the inner product
defines the norm.

Definition 1.1.9. Hilbert space

A Hilbert space is a Banach space with an inner product such that 〈γ i , γ i 〉 = γ i .

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Hilbert spaces provide the foundation for the theory of time series.

2. Properties of Hilbert spaces

This section discusses a few properties of the general structure of Hilbert

space. These properties depend critically on the notion of orthogonality between
two elements of a Hilbert space.

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Definition 1.2.1 Orthogonality

Two elements γ i and γ j are orthogonal if 〈γ i , γ j 〉 =0

i. Projections

Orthogonality allows one to construct various decompositions of elements

of Hilbert spaces and hence of the spaces themselves. To see this, take any two
elements of a space, γ i and γ j and consider the element

〈γ i , γ j 〉
γ − γj (1.1)
i
〈γ j , γ j 〉

This element is also a member of the Hilbert space since the space is linear.
Further, this element is orthogonal to γ j since

〈γ i , γ j 〉
〈γ i − γ j , γ j 〉 = 〈γ i , γ j 〉 − 〈γ i , γ j 〉 = 0 (1.2)
〈γ j , γ j 〉

This construction is suggestive of a fundamental property of Hilbert spaces,

namely that there exist ways to decompose these spaces into mutually
orthogonal subspaces. Ash, Royden and Simmons all provide proofs of the
following.

Theorem 1.2.1. Decomposability of Hilbert space into orthogonal

subspaces

Suppose that Γ and Γ1 are Hilbert spaces such that Γ1 ⊆ Γ . Then there exists a

unique Hilbert space Γ 2 ⊆ Γ such that

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i. Γ = Γ1 ⊕ Γ 2

ii. Γ1 ⊥ Γ 2

The operator “ ⊕ ” is called the direct sum. The direct sum of two spaces
produces a third space whose elements consist of all linear combinations of
elements of the original spaces and the limits of all such combinations. The
following corollary is nothing more than the restriction of Theorem 1.2.1 to
consideration of a single element of Γ .

Corollary 1.2.1. Decomposition of an element of a Hilbert space into

orthogonal components

Suppose that Γ and Γ1 are Hilbert spaces such that Γ1 ⊆ Γ . For a given element

γ ∈ Γ , there exists a unique pair of elements γ 1 ∈ Γ1 and γ 2 ∈ Γ 2 , (where Γ 2 is

defined in Theorem 1.2.1) such that

i. γ= γ 1 + γ 2

ii. γ 1 ⊥ γ 2

In this corollary, γ 1 is called the projection of γ onto Γ1 . This projection

has an interpretation in terms of an optimization problem. Suppose one want to

solve the problem

minξ ∈Γ1 γ − ξ
2
(1.3)

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In other words, one wants to find that element of the subspace Γ1 that is closest

to an element of Γ . The solution to this problem is ξ = γ 1 . To see this, note that

γ −ξ = γ1 + γ 2 − ξ
2 2
=
γ1 − ξ + γ2 + γ 1 − ξ ,γ 2 + γ 2 ,γ 1 − ξ =
2 2
(1.4)
γ1 − ξ + γ2
2 2

where the last equality follows from the orthogonality of Γ1 and Γ 2 . Since ξ

only affects the value of γ − ξ through γ 1 − ξ , the solution is immediate

2 2

ii. Orthonormal bases for Hilbert space

For R n , it is possible to think of each element as a linear combination of

vectors (1,0,...) , ( 0,1,...) , etc. These unit length vectors are, of course the axes

of the space. This property holds for general Hilbert spaces.

We start with two definitions.

Definition 1.2.3. Orthonormal set

A subset S of a given Hilbert space is called an orthonormal set if

i. each element of S is orthogonal to every other element

ii. the norm of every element equals 1

Definition 1.2.4. Orthonormal basis

An orthonormal set S is an orthonormal basis with respect to a given Hilbert

space H if it is not a proper subset of any other orthonormal set in the space.

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 If a set of vectors span a space, this means that if one takes all linear
combinations and limits of the linear combination of elements of the set, one
reproduces the space. Orthonormal bases have the important property that they
span the space. A set of elements of a space span it if, starting with the set,
linear combinations of the elements and their associated limits together
constitute the space.

Theorem 1.2.2 Relationship between orthonormal basis and a given Hilbert

space

An orthonormal basis of a given Hilbert space Γ spans the space.

The next two theorems establish the existence of orthonormal bases.

Particularly clear proofs are found in Ash section 3.2 and Royden section 10.8.

Theorem 1.2.3. Existence of an orthonormal basis

Every Hilbert space contains an orthonormal basis.

Theorem 1.2.4. Existence of a countable orthonormal basis

A Hilbert space contains a countable orthonormal basis iff the space is

separable. 1

Countable orthonormal bases are of interest because they provide the

“axes” for a Hilbert space that are analogous to the orthogonal unit vectors one
uses to construct R k . When S is a countable orthonormal basis for Γ , a typical
element γ can either be represented as

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 I
γ = ∑ ai si (1.5)
i =1

or can be arbitrarily well approximated this way. (The difference is that since the
space is complete, it contains limits of all such sums as well as the sums
themselves.) The coefficients are implicitly determined by the projection of γ
onto each of the 1-dimensional subspaces spanned by the ε i ’s. 2 Using the

construction of orthogonal decompositions developed above, it is clear that

〈γ , si 〉 . (Recall that 〈si , si 〉 =1 by assumption.
ai = These are also known as

Fourier coefficients.

3. Applications

To provide an application of the abstract ideas we have discussed

considering Hilbert space, consider R k , k -dimensional Euclidean space. Letting
x and y denote vectors in this space, the inner product of the vectors is ∑x y
i
i i

with associated norm ( ∑ xi xi )1/2 . To see how the Hilbert space decomposition
i

theorem applies, consider a Hilbert space generated around the vector

(1,0,0…0). (Recall that generating a Hilbert space around some set of elements
means adding all linear combinations and limits of linear combinations to
elements to the set.) This will be a subspace of R k . What is the orthogonal
complement to this space? It is the Hilbert space spanned by the vectors
(0,1,0,0…0), (0,0,1,0…0),…, (0,0,0,0…1).

1
A space is separable if it contains a countable dense subset. The spaces we
study will always be separable.
2
Each si spans a distinct 1-dimensional subspace by the fact that the si ’s form
an orthonormal basis.

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 Similarly, a number of simple properties of Hilbert spaces are
generalizations of results that one finds in a range of mathematical contexts.

Example 1.3.1. Pythagorean Theorem

Suppose that some element of a Hilbert space, call it x , is the sum of two
orthogonal elements y and z . In this case, the square of the norm of x obeys

〈 x, x 〉 = 〈 y + z, y + z〉 = 〈 y , y 〉 + 〈 z, z〉 (1.6)

since by orthogonality, 〈 y , z〉 = 〈 z, y 〉 = 0 . But this is nothing more than the

Pythagorean theorem for arbitrary Hilbert spaces, as opposed to R 2 .

Example 1.3.2. Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality

For any a , the inner product of x + ay with can be written as

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〈 x + ay , x + ay 〉 = 〈 x, x 〉 + a〈 y , x 〉 + a 〈 x, y 〉 + a 〈 y , y 〉 ≥ 0 (1.7)

〈 x, y 〉
Suppose that a = − . Substituting into the above,
〈 y, y 〉

2
〈 x, y 〉 〈y, x〉 〈 x, y 〉
〈 x + ay , x + ay 〉 = 〈 x, x 〉 − 〈y, x〉 − 〈 x, y 〉 + 〈 y, y 〉 =
〈y, y 〉 〈y, y 〉 〈y, y 〉
2
(1.8)
〈 x, y 〉
〈 x, x 〉 − ≥ 0.
〈y, y 〉

Rearranging terms, this expression implies

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 2
〈 x, x 〉〈 y , y 〉 ≥ 〈 x, y 〉 (1.9)

with equality iff x = ay (The if and only if claim is something you should verify.)
This is the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for an arbitrary Hilbert space.

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References

Ash, R., (1976), Real Analysis and Probability, New York: Academic Press.

Royden, H., (1988), Real Analysis, Third Edition, New York: MacMillan.

Simmons, G., (1963), Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis, New York:
Academic Press.

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