A NOTE ON BESSEL’S INEQUALITY

S.S. DRAGOMIR

Abstract. A monotonicity property of Bessel’s inequality in inner product

spaces is given.

1. Introduction
Let X be a linear space over the real or complex number field K. A mapping
(·, ·) : X × X → K is said to be a positive hermitian form if the following conditions
are satisfied:
(i) (αx + βy, z) = α (x, z) + β (y, z) for all x, y, z ∈ X and α, β ∈ K;
(ii) (y, x) = (x, y) for all x, y ∈ X;
(iii) (x, x) ≥ 0 for all x ∈ X.
1
If kxk := (x, x) 2 , x ∈ X denotes the semi-norm associated to this form and
(ei )i∈I is an orthornormal family of vectors in X, i.e., (ei , ej ) = δ ij (i, j ∈ I), then
one has the following inequality [15]:
2
X 2
(1.1) kxk ≥ |(x, ei )| for all x ∈ X,
i∈I

which is well known in the literature as Bessel’s inequality.

Indeed, for every finite part H of I, one has:
 
2
X X X
0 ≤ x− (x, ei ) ei = x − (x, ei ) ei , x − (x, ej ) ej 
i∈H i∈H j∈H
2
X 2
X 2
X
= kxk − |(x, ei )| − |(x, ej )| + (x, ei ) (ej , x) δ ij
i∈H j∈H i,j∈H
2
X 2
= kxk − |(x, ei )| ,
i∈H

for all x ∈ X, which proves the assertion.

The main aim of this paper is to improve this result as follows.

2. Results
The following theorem holds.
Theorem 1. Let X be a linear space and (·, ·)2 , (·, ·)1 two hermitian forms on
X such that k·k2 is greater than or equal to k·k1 , i.e., kxk2 ≥ kxk1 for all x ∈
X. Assume that (ei )i∈I is an orthornormal family in (X; (·, ·)2 ) and (fi )i∈J is an

Date: January 05, 2000.

1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 26D15; Secondary 46C99.
Key words and phrases. Bessel’s inequality, Inner product spaces.
1
2 S.S. DRAGOMIR

orthornormal family in (X; (·, ·)1 ) such that for any i ∈ I there exists a finite K ⊂ J
so that
X
(F) ei = αj fj , αj ∈ K (j ∈ K) ,
j∈K

then one has the inequality:

2
X 2 2
X 2
(2.1) kxk2 − |(x, ei )2 | ≥ kxk1 − (x, fj )1 ≥ 0,
i∈I j∈J

for all x ∈ X.
In order to prove this fact, we require the following lemma.
Lemma 1. Let X be a linear space endowed with a positive hermitian form (·, ·)
and (gk )k=1,n be an orthornormal family in (X; (·, ·)) . Then

n 2 n
X 2
X 2
(2.2) x− λk gk ≥ kxk − |(x, gk )| ≥ 0,
k=1 k=1

for all λk ∈ K and x ∈ X (k = 1, ..., n).

Proof. We will prove this fact by induction over “n”.

Suppose n = 1. Then we must prove that
2 2 2
kx − λ1 g1 k ≥ kxk − |(x, g1 )| , x ∈ X, λ1 ∈ K.

A simple computation shows that the above inequality is equivalent with

2 2
|λ1 | − 2 Re (x, λ1 g1 ) + |(x, g1 )| ≥ 0, x ∈ X, λ1 ∈ K.

Since Re (x, λ1 g1 ) ≤ |(x, λ1 g1 )|, one has

2 2 2 2
|λ1 | − 2 Re (x, λ1 g1 ) + |(x, g1 )| ≥ |λ1 | − 2 |λ1 | |(x, g1 )| + |(x, g1 )|
2
≥ (|λ1 | − |(x, g1 )|) ≥ 0

for all λ1 ∈ K and x ∈ X, which proves the statement.

Now, assume that (2.2) is valid for “(n − 1)”. Then we have:
n 2
X
x− λk gk
k=1
n−1
X n−1
X
2 2
= (x − λn gn ) − λk gk ≥ kx − λn gn k − |(x − λn gn , gk )|
k=1 k=1
n−1
X n−1
X
2 2 2 2 2
= kx − λn gn k − |(x, gk )| ≥ kxk − |(x, gn )| − |(x, gk )|
k=1 k=1
n
X
2 2
= kxk − |(x, gk )| ,
k=1

for all λk ∈ K, x ∈ X (k = 1, ..., n) , and the proof of the lemma is complete.

 BESSEL’S INEQUALITY 3

Proof. (Theorem) Let H be a finite part of I. Since k·k2 is greater than k·k1 , we
have:
2
2
X 2
X
kxk2 − |(x, ei )2 | = x− (x, ei )2 ei
i∈H i∈H 2
2
X
≥ x− (x, ei )2 ei , x ∈ X.
i∈H 1
Since, by (F), we may state that for any i ∈ H there exists a finite K ⊂ J with
X
ei = (ei , fj )1 fj ,
j∈K

we have
2 2
X X X
x− (x, ei )2 ei = x− (x, ei )2 (ei , fj )1 fj
i∈H 1 i∈H j∈K
1
! 2
X X
= x− (x, ei )2 ei , fj fj
j∈K i∈H 1 1
for all x ∈ X.
Applying the above lemma for (·, ·) = (·, ·)1 , (gk )k=1,n = (fj )j∈K , we can
conclude that
2
X 2
X 2
x− λj fj ≥ kxk1 − (x, fj )1 , x ∈ X,
j∈K j∈K
1
where !
X
λj = (x, ei )2 ei , fj ∈ K (j ∈ K) .
i∈H 1
Consequently, we have:
2
X 2 2
X 2 2
X 2
kxk2 − |(x, ei )2 | ≥ kxk1 − (x, fj )1 ≥ kxk1 − (x, fj )1
i∈H j∈K j∈J

for all x ∈ X and H a finite part of I, from where results (2.1).

The proof is thus completed.
Corollary 1. Let k·k1 , k·k2 : X → R+ be as above. Then for all x, y ∈ X, we have
the inequality:
2 2 2 2 2 2
(2.3) kxk2 kyk2 − |(x, y)2 | ≥ kxk1 kyk1 − |(x, y)1 | ≥ 0,
which is an improvement of the well known Cauchy-Scwartz inequality.
Proof. If kyk2 = 0, then (2.3) holds with equality.
n o n o
y y
If kyki 6= 0, (i = 1, 2) , then for {e1 } = kyk , {f1 } = kyk , the above
2 1
theorem yields that
2 2 2 2 2 2
kxk2 kyk2 − |(x, y)2 | kxk1 kyk1 − |(x, y)1 |
2 ≥ 2
kyk2 kyk1
4 S.S. DRAGOMIR

and since kyk2 ≥ kyk1 , the inequality (2.3) is obtained.

Remark 1. For a different proof of (2.3), see also [5].
Now, we will give some natural applications of the above theorem.

3. Applications
(1) Let (X; (·, ·)) be an inner product space and (ei )i∈I an orthornormal family
in X. Assume that A : X → X is a linear operator such that kAxk ≤ kxk
for all x ∈ X and (Aei , Aej ) = δ ij for all i, j ∈ I. Then one has the
inequality
2
X 2 2
X 2
kxk − |(x, ei )| ≥ kAxk − |(Ax, Aei )| ≥ 0
i∈I i∈I

for all x ∈ X.
The proof follows by the hermitian forms (x, y)2 = (x, y) and (x, y)1 =
(Ax, Ay) for x, y ∈ X and for the family (fi )i∈I = (ei )i∈I .
(2) If A : X → X is such that kAxk ≥ kxk for all x ∈ X, then, with the
previous assumptions, we also have
2
X 2 2
X 2
0 ≤ kxk − |(x, ei )| ≤ kAxk − |(Ax, Aei )| ,
i∈I i∈I

for all x ∈ X.
(3) Suppose that A : X → X is a symmetric positive definite operator with
2
(Ax, x) ≥ kxk for all x ∈ X. If (ei )i∈I is an orthornormal family in X
such that (Aei , Aej ) = δ ij for all i, j ∈ I, then one has the inequality
2
X 2
X 2
0 ≤ kxk − |(x, ei )| ≤ (Ax, x) − |(Ax, ei )| ,
i∈I i∈I

for all x ∈ X.
The proof follows from the above theorem for the choices (x, y)1 = (Ax, y)
and (x, y)2 = (x, y) , x, y ∈ X. We omit the details.
For other inequalities in inner product spaces, see the papers [1]-[14] and [7]-[6]
where further references are given.

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