Real Analysis – Is Inner Product Continuous When One Argument is Fixed?

general-topologyinner-productsreal-analysis

In a inner product space with inner product $\langle\ ,\ \rangle$ and real or complex line as its base field, for each point $x$ in the space, is $\langle x,-\rangle$ continuous function on the second argument, and is $\langle – ,x\rangle$ continuous function on the first argument? "Continuous" is defined respect to the topology induced by the inner product.

Thanks and regards!

Best Answer

Yes.

Fix x in the inner product space, and let $f(y) = \langle y, x \rangle$ denote the inner product function. Note that this is a linear functional -- that is, it is linear in y, and maps vectors to scalars.

It is a well-known theorem that linear functionals are continuous (on the entire space) if and only if they are bounded. Here, "bounded" means that there exists a constant M such that $|f(y)| \leq M|y|$ for all y in the space.

That the inner product functional is bounded now follows from the Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality: $|f(y)| \leq |x||y|.$

Related Question