Orthogonal complement of the orthogonal complement

functional-analysishilbert-spacestopological-vector-spacesvector-spaces

Consider the infinite dimensional vector space of functions $M$ over $\mathbb{C}$.

The inner product defined as in square integrable functions we use in quantum mechanics.

How can we show that the orthogonal complement of the orthogonal complement gives the topological closure of the vector space and not the vector space itself?

If we already know that the orthogonal complement is itself closed.

$$M^{{\perp}{\perp}}=\overline M$$

Best Answer

Let $M \subseteq \mathcal{H}$ be a linear subspace of the Hilbert space.

(i) Consider $\{\varphi_n\}$ as a Cauchy sequence in $M$

Because $\forall \varphi_n \in M \implies \forall \mu \in M^\perp: \langle\mu, \varphi_n\rangle=0\implies \varphi_n\in (M^\perp)^\perp$

Therefore, $M \subseteq M^{\perp\perp}$

(ii) $M^{\perp\perp}$ is an orthogonal complement and hence it is a closed linear subspace of $\mathcal{H}$.

Therefore, it is a sub Hilbert space. Hence complete. So $\{\varphi_n\}$ is a Cauchy sequence in $M^{\perp\perp}$ and hence it converges in $M^{\perp\perp}$:

$$\lim_{n \to \infty} \varphi_n= \varphi \in M^{\perp\perp}$$

We have shown that $\{\varphi_n\}$ as a Cauchy sequence in $M$ converges to $\varphi$ in $M^{\perp\perp}$. That is the topological closure of $M$ is $M^{\perp\perp}$:

$$\overline{M}=M^{\perp\perp}$$

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