Bornological space

In mathematics, particularly in functional analysis, a bornological space is a type of space which, in some sense, possesses the minimum amount of structure needed to address questions of boundedness of sets and functions, in the same way that a topological space possesses the minimum amount of structure needed to address questions of continuity. Bornological spaces were first studied by Mackey and their name was given by Bourbaki.

Bornological sets

Let X be any set. A bornology on X is a collection B of subsets of X such that

Elements of the collection B are usually called bounded sets. However, if it is necessary to differentiate this formal usage of the term "bounded" with traditional uses, elements of the collection B may also be called bornivorous sets. The pair (X, B) is called a bornological set.

A base of the bornology B is a subset B_0 of B such that each element of B is a subset of an element of B_0.

Examples

Bounded maps

If B_1 and B_2 are two bornologies over the spaces X and Y, respectively, and if f\colon X \rightarrow Y is a function, then we say that f is a bounded map if it maps B_1-bounded sets in X to B_2-bounded sets in Y. If in addition f is a bijection and f^{-1} is also bounded then we say that f is a bornological isomorphism.

Examples:

Theorems:

Vector bornologies

If X is a vector space over a field K and then a vector bornology on X is a bornology B on X that is stable under vector addition, scalar multiplication, and the formation of balanced hulls (i.e. if the sum of two bounded sets is bounded, etc.). If in addition B is stable under the formation of convex hulls (i.e. the convex hull of a bounded set is bounded) then B is called a convex vector bornology. And if the only bounded subspace of X is the trivial subspace (i.e. the space consisting only of 0) then it is called separated. A subset A of B is called bornivorous if it absorbs every bounded set. In a vector bornology, A is bornivorous if it absorbs every bounded balanced set and in a convex vector bornology A is bornivorous if it absorbs every bounded disk.

Bornology of a topological vector space

Every topological vector space X gives a bornology on X by defining a subset B\subseteq X to be bounded (or von-Neumann bounded), if and only if for all open sets U\subseteq Xcontaining zero there exists a \lambda>0 with B\subseteq\lambda U. If X is a locally convex topological vector space then B \subseteq X is bounded if and only if all continuous semi-norms on X are bounded on B.

The set of all bounded subsets of X is called the bornology or the Von-Neumann bornology of X.

Induced topology

Suppose that we start with a vector space X and convex vector bornology B on X. If we let T denote the collection of all sets that are convex, balanced, and bornivorous then T forms neighborhood basis at 0 for a locally convex topology on X that is compatible with the vector space structure of X.

Bornological spaces

In functional analysis, a bornological space is a locally convex topological vector space whose topology can be recovered from its bornology in a natural way. Explicitly, a Hausdorff locally convex space X with continuous dual X' is called a bornological space if any one of the following equivalent conditions holds:

where a subset A of X is called sequentially open if every sequence converging to 0 eventually belongs to A.

Examples

The following topological vector spaces are all bornological:

Properties

Banach disks

Suppose that X is a topological vector space. Then we say that a subset D of X is a disk if it is convex and balanced. The disk D is absorbing in the space span(D) and so its Minkowski functional forms a seminorm on this space, which is denoted by \mu_D or by p_D. When we give span(D) the topology induced by this seminorm, we denote the resulting topological vector space by X_D. A basis of neighborhoods of 0 of this space consists of all sets of the form r D where r ranges over all positive real numbers.

This space is not necessarily Hausdorff as is the case, for instance, if we let X = \mathbb{R}^2 and D be the x-axis. However, if D is a bounded disk and if X is Hausdorff, then \mu_D is a norm and X_D is a normed space. If D is a bounded sequentially complete disk and X is Hausdorff, then the space X_D is a Banach space. A bounded disk in X for which X_D is a Banach space is called a Banach disk, infracomplete, or a bounded completant.

Suppose that X is a locally convex Hausdorff space and that D is a bounded disk in X. Then

Examples

Ultrabornological spaces

A disk in a topological vector space X is called infrabornivorous if it absorbs all Banach disks. If X is locally convex and Hausdorff, then a disk is infrabornivorous if and only if it absorbs all compact disks. A locally convex space is called ultrabornological if any of the following conditions hold:

Properties

See also

References