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23 Equivalent Norms

The document discusses equivalent norms on vector spaces. It defines what it means for two norms to be equivalent and proves that on finite-dimensional spaces, any two norms are equivalent. It also provides examples of norms that are not equivalent, such as the L1 and L∞ norms on continuous functions and the l1 and l∞ norms on sequence spaces.

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Dmitri Zaitsev
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362 views4 pages

23 Equivalent Norms

The document discusses equivalent norms on vector spaces. It defines what it means for two norms to be equivalent and proves that on finite-dimensional spaces, any two norms are equivalent. It also provides examples of norms that are not equivalent, such as the L1 and L∞ norms on continuous functions and the l1 and l∞ norms on sequence spaces.

Uploaded by

Dmitri Zaitsev
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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23.

Equivalent norms
MAU22200 - Advanced Analysis

https://www.maths.tcd.ie/∼zaitsev/Adv-2020
Dmitri Zaitsev [email protected]

Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 23. Equivalent norms 1/4


Definition (equivalent norms)
Two norms k · k1 , k · k2 on a vector space X are called equivalent if there
exists c, C > 0 with

ckxk2 ≤ kxk1 ≤ C kxk2 for all x ∈ X . (∗)

Theorem
Two norms on a vector space X are equivalent if and only if they induce
the same topology on X .

Proof. For any two norms k · k1 , k · k2 on X , consider the identity operator

A : (X , k · k1 ) → (X , k · k2 ), x 7→ x.

Then the norm equivalence (∗) means precisely that both A and its inverse
A−1 are bounded linear operators. Which we know to be the same as the
continuity of both A and A−1 , which is, in turn, equivalent to both
induced topologies being the same as claimed.
Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 23. Equivalent norms 2/4
Theorem
On a finite-dimensional vector space X , any two norms are equivalent.

Proof. Fix any norm k · k and a basis {e1 , . . . , ek } in X , and define

L : (Rk , k · k1 ) → (X , k · k), c = (c1 , . . . , ck ) 7→ c1 e1 + . . . + ck ek ,

which is a bounded operator in view of the following computation:


P P
kLck = k j cj ej k ≤ j |cj | · kej k ≤ (maxj kej k) · kck1 .

Hence L is continuous and so is its norm f (c) := kLck as composition.


The unit d1 -sphere S := {c : kck1 = 1} ⊂ Rk is closed and bounded,
hence is compact by Heine-Borel. Then f attains minimum and maximum:
f (a) ≤ f (c) ≤ f (b) for some a, b ∈ S and all c ∈ S.
Since L is bijective, a ∈ S =⇒ a 6= 0 =⇒ f (a) = kLak > 0. Then
1
0 6= t ∈ Rk =⇒ c := t ∈ S =⇒ kLakktk1 ≤ kLtk ≤ kLbkktk1 ,
ktk1
=⇒ any k · k is equivalent to the same norm kxk0 := kL−1 xk1 on X .
Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 23. Equivalent norms 3/4
Example of norms that are not equivalent

Examples (inequivalence of L1 , L∞ and of `1 , `∞ )


1 The norms k · k1 and k · k∞ on C [0, 1] are not equivalent. Indeed, if

we had kf k∞ ≤ C kf k1 for some C > 0 and any f ∈ C [0, 1],

taking f (x) = x n , n = 1, 2, . . ., we would reach a contradiction since


R1
kx n k∞ = sup0≤x≤1 |x n |1 but kx n k1 = 0 x n dx = 1/(n + 1) → 0 as
n → ∞.
2 Recall that the space `1 consists of all sequences (xn )n≥1 with
P
n |xn | < ∞. Then the norms k · k1 and k · k∞ are not equivalent on
`1 . Indeed, if kxk1 ≤ C kxk∞ for some C > 0 and any x = (xn ) ∈ `1 ,
taking (
1/k 1 ≤ n ≤ k
x := (xn )n≥1 , xn := ,
0 n>k
=⇒ contradiction since kxk∞ = supn |xn | = 1/k but kxk1 = 1.
Dmitri Zaitsev (Trinity College Dublin) 23. Equivalent norms 4/4

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