Weak convergence of unitary operators on a dense subset.

functional-analysishilbert-spacesoperator-theoryweak-convergence

Suppose $\mathcal{H}$ is a separable Hilbert space over $\mathbb{C}$ with scalar product $(\cdot,\cdot)$. Let $(U_n),\, n\in \mathbb{N},$ and $U$ be unitary operators on $\mathcal{H}$ and $D\subset \mathcal{H}$ be dense such that
$$ (x, U_n y) \longrightarrow (x,U y) \quad(n\to \infty)$$
for all $x,y\in D$. Can we already conclude that $U_n \to U$ weakly, that is, the above equation holds for all $x,y\in\mathcal{H}$? If not, is there a reasonable further assumption that would be sufficient to imply weak convergence?

I know this is not true if $U_n$ and $U$ are just bounded, but in all counter-examples I know of, $U$ is not unitary.

Edit: If it helps, $D$ is the linear span of an orthonormal system $(e_k)_{k\in\mathbb{N}}$.

Best Answer

You only need the fact that $\|U_n\|$ is uniformly bounded. In our case $\|U\|\leq 1$ and $\|U_n\| \leq 1$ for all $n$.

It is obvious that the limit relation extends to the case when $x \in H$ and $y \in D$.

Now let $x,y \in H$. Choose $y' \in D$ such that $\|y-y'\| <\epsilon$. Then $|(x,U_ny)-(x,Uy)| \leq |(x,U_ny)-(x,U_ny')|+|(x,U_ny')-(x,Uy')|+|(x,Uy')-(x,Uy)|.$ The middle term tends to $0$. The first and the last terms are both bounded by $\|x\|\|y-y'\|<\epsilon \|x\|$.