Here are some remarks to get you started.
- $T$ is compact iff $T^*$ is compact.
- $\ker(T)^\bot = \overline{ \mathrm{ran}(T^*)}$.
- $\mathcal{K} \subset \mathcal{H}$ is separable iff $\overline{ \mathcal{K}}$ is separable.
With knowledge of these facts, you should be able to reduce one of your statements to the other. You might also consider trying to prove a lemma along the lines of
- If $T_n \to T$ in operator norm, then $\mathrm{ran}(T) \subset \overline{ \bigcup_n \mathrm{ran}(T_n)}$.
Even in finite dimensions you can easily change the inner product. Let $\{ e_{n} \}$ be an orthonormal basis of $\mathbb{C}^{N}$ and define the new inner product
$$
(x,y)_{\mbox{new}}=\sum_{n=1}^{N}\lambda_{n}(x,e_{n})(e_{n},y).
$$
where $\lambda_{n} > 0$ for all $n$.
All the norms are equivalent on $\mathbb{C}^{N}$. This can be written as
$$
(x,y)_{\mbox{new}}=(Ax,y)_{\mbox{old}}
$$
where $A$ is a positive definite selfadjoint matrix. In finite dimensions, this describes every possible inner-product. The inner products are in one-to-one correspondence with positive definite matrices. Because selfadjoint $A$ can be diagonalized by an orthonormal basis of eigenvectors, $(Ax,y) = \sum_{n}\lambda_{n}x_{n}y_{n}^{\star}$ always looks like a weighted inner product when viewed with respect to a correctly chosen orthonormal basis.
If $X$ is an infinite dimensional linear space on which two topologically equivalent Hilbert inner products are defined, say $(\cdot,\cdot)$ and $(\cdot,\cdot)_{1}$, then the same thing happens. There exists a unique positive bounded selfadjoint $A$ such that
$$
(x,y)_{1}=(Ax,y),\;\;\; x,y\in X.
$$
But it also goes the other way: $(x,y)=(Bx,y)_{1}$ where $B$ is positive. You end up with $(x,y)=(Bx,y)_{1}=(ABx,y)$ which gives $AB=I$. Similarly $BA=I$. The existence of such $A$ and $B$ comes from the Lax-Milgram Theorem, which is proved using the Riesz Representation Theorem for bounded linear functionals on a Hilbert Space.
But there are bounded positive linear operators $A$ on a Hilbert space $X$ which are not positive definite. Such an $A$ gives rise to $(x,y)_{1}=(Ax,y)$ with $\|x\|_{1} \le C\|x\|$ for a constant $C$, but the reverse inequality need not hold, which can lead to an incomplete $X$ under $\|\cdot\|_{1}$. For example, let $X=L^{2}[0,1]$ with the usual inner product. Define a new inner product by $(f,g)_{1}=\int_{0}^{1}xf(x)g(x)\,dx$. This is achieved as $(Af,g)$ where $Af=xf(x)$. This space is not complete because $1/\sqrt{x}$ is in the completion of $L^{2}$ under the norm $\|\cdot\|_{1}$. The completion of $(X,\|\cdot\|_{1})$ consists of $\frac{1}{\sqrt{x}}L^{2}[0,1]$. However, if you instead define $\|f\|_{1}^{2}=\int_{0}^{1}(x+\epsilon)|f(x)|^{2}\,dx$ for some $\epsilon > 0$, then you end up with an equivalent norm on $X$.
Best Answer
2/3. You can see that $\|J_ku\|_{V_k^*}=\|u\|_{V_k}$; this proves that $J_k$ is an isometry. In particular, it is injective. So $J_k:V_k\to V_k^*$ is an injective map between two finite-dimensional spaces of the same dimension, and so it is also surjective. This means that $J_k$ is a linear homeomorphism.
$4.$ This is the same as 1.