Infinite-dimensional projections of linearly independent sets

fa.functional-analysislinear algebraset-theory

A subset of a linear space $X$ is called infinite-dimensional if it is not contained in a finite-dimensional linear subspace of $X$.

Problem. Let $L$ be an infinite-dimensional subset of the linear space $\mathbb R^\omega$. Is there an infinite set $I\subseteq\omega$ such that for every infinite set $J\subseteq I$ the projection of $L$ to $\mathbb R^J$ is infinite-dimensional?

Remark. The answer to this problem is affirmative if every function $f\in L$ has finite range.

Best Answer

For $n :=\{0,1,\dots,n-1\}\in\omega$ let’s denote $P_n:\mathbb{R}^\omega\to \mathbb{R} ^n$ the projection, which is the restriction map $f\mapsto f_{|n}$. The dimensions of the subspaces $P_n(L)\subset \mathbb{R} ^n$ can’t be stationary, because that would mean that for some $n_0$, every function $f\in P_{n_0}(L)$ has a unique extension to a function $\tilde f\in L$, in which case $ P_{n_0}(L)\ni f\mapsto \tilde f\in L$ is a linear bijection, whereas $L$ was assumed infinite-dimensional. So let $(n_k)_k$ be a strictly increasing sequence such that $\dim P_{n_k+1}(L)> \dim P_{n_k}(L)$. Thus $\ker \big(P_{n_k}: P_{n_k+1}(L)\to P_{n_k}(L) \big)\neq(0)$: there is a function $f_k\in L$ such that $f_k|{n_k}=0$ and $f_k(n_k+1)=1$. So if we take $ I:=\{n_k+1\}_{k\in\omega}$, for any infinite $J\subset I$ The space $P_J(L)$ contains the functions $P_Jf_k={f_k}_{|J}$, which are clearly linearly independent.

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