Real Analysis – If Linear Operator Has Adjoint Operator, It is Bounded

adjoint-operatorsfunctional-analysishilbert-spacesoperator-theoryreal-analysis

This is a question I'm struggling with for a while:

Let $H$ be a Hilber space. Let $T,S: H\rightarrow H$ be linear operators (not neccessarily bounded) such that for every $x,y\in H$: $\langle Tx,y\rangle=\langle x,Sy \rangle$.

Prove $T,S$ are bounded.


What I did so far:

First attempt:

$||Tx||^2=\langle Tx,Tx\rangle=\langle x,STx\rangle\le||x||*||STx||\le||x||*||S||*||Tx||$

I'm not entirly sure I'm allowed to do the last inequallity, since $||S||$ might be $\infty$.

It follows $||Tx||\le ||x||*||S||$

and analogly

$||Sx||\le ||x||*||T||$

From the first I'd get $||T||\le ||S||$ and from the second $||S||\le||T||$. Therefore $||S||=||T||$.
I don't know where to go from here.

Second Attempt:
assume $T$ isn't bounded, therefore so is $S$, therefore there are series $(x_n),(y_n)\subset H$ such that $||x_n||=||y_n||=1$ and $\lim ||Tx_n||=\infty,\lim ||Sy_n||=\infty$. I'll keep it going soon, but it didn't go so well..


I'd love some guide. Not neccessarily the whole solution, but something that would tell me what i'm missing.

Thanks 🙂

Best Answer

Show that $T$ and $S$ are closed. Then apply the closed graph theorem to conclude that $T$ and $S$ are continuous.

To show that $T$ is closed, suppose $\{ x_{n} \}$ converges to $x$ and suppose $\{ Tx_{n} \}$ converges to $y$, and show that $Tx=y$; to do this observe that $$ (Tx,z) = (x,Sz) = \lim_{n}(x_{n},Sz) = \lim_{n}(Tx_{n},z)=(y,z),\;\;\; z \in \mathcal{H}. $$ Because $(Tx-y,z)=0$ for all $z\in\mathcal{H}$, then $Tx=y$. So the graph of $T$ is closed. Similarly the graph of $S$ is closed.

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