Bounded linear functional positive on a given open ball

functional-analysishahn-banach-theoremreal-analysis

Suppose B is an open ball in a real normed vector space V that does not contain 0. Prove that there exists a bounded linear functional on V that is positive on all element in B.

I suspect the Hahn-Banach theorem such be used here on a subspace of V and then extend it to V to get the required map, but I don't see how to do so. Any help is appreciated.

Best Answer

The Hahh-Banach Theorem comes in two flavors: the "Extension Theorem", which you probably know, and the "Separation Theorem", which is what you need to use here, as mentioned in @Conifold's comment. They are equivalent but the proof of their equivalence needs an argument which is not entirely trivial.

If you insist in using the "Extension Theorem" to solve your problem then you must sort of mimick part of the aforementioned argument, which runs more or less like this:

Let $x_0$ be the center of your ball $B$, and $r$ its radius, so that $\Vert x_0\Vert \geq r$. Use the extension Theorem (or rather a well known Corollary) to find a linear functional $f$, with $\Vert f\Vert=1$, and $f(x_0)=\Vert x_0\Vert$. Then, for every $x\in B$, one has that $$f(x_0-x) \leq \Vert x_0-x\Vert<r,$$ whence $$ f(x)>f(x_0)-r = \Vert x_0\Vert - r \geq 0. $$