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$\underline{\text{Problem:}}$

Given a Hilbert space H with inner product $\langle\cdot{,}\cdot\rangle:H\times H\to\mathbb{F}$, suppose we have another inner product $\langle\cdot{,}\cdot\rangle':H\times H\to\mathbb{F}$ that satisfies $|\langle x,y\rangle'|\leq |\langle x,y\rangle|$ $\forall x,y\in H$.

I would like to prove the existence of a self-adjoint $T\in \mathscr{B}(H)$ such that $\langle x,y\rangle'=\langle T(x),y\rangle$ $\forall x,y\in H$.

$\underline{\text{Attempted Solution:}}$

I was able to show the existence of such a map by the following Riesz Representation Theorem:

Let X be a Hilbert space, $f\in X^*$. Then there exists a unique element $x_f\in X$ such that $f(y)=\langle y,x_f\rangle$ $\forall y\in X$. Moreover, $\lVert x_f\rVert=\lVert f\rVert$ and $f\mapsto x_f$ is a conjugate-linear isometric bijection $X^*\to X$.

$\underline{\text{Update:}}$

If for $y\in H$ we set $f_y(x)=\langle x,y\rangle'$, then its easy to show $f_y\in H^*$ with boundedness following by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. Then you can apply the Riesz representation theorem to get a unique $T(y)\in H$ such that $f_y(x)=\langle x,T(y)\rangle$ for all $x\in H$. Then the mapping $T(y)=\langle x,T(y)\rangle$ is a bounded linear map as well. And ok this doesn't give us self-adjointness. But then I'm thinking we could use the existence of an adjoint theorem to show it is. Is this reasoning correct so far?

Dean Miller
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  • Can you clarify what map you established the existence of as well as which properties you know the map satisfies? – Dean Miller Mar 29 '25 at 03:19
  • Sure. It's probably simpler than I think, I just haven't worked with Hilbert spaces in several years. I'll edit it into the post itself. – ShadowPiper Mar 29 '25 at 04:09
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    The assumption should be changed to $|\langle x,y\rangle'|\le c |x|,|y|$, where $|v|=\langle v,v\rangle^{1/2}.$ Original assumption implies that the inner products are equal mod a positive constant. – Ryszard Szwarc Mar 29 '25 at 06:28
  • @RyszardSzwarc This is how the problem was posed to us exactly. Perhaps it is a mistake or it was meant to be simpler. – ShadowPiper Mar 29 '25 at 16:12
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    Does this and this answer your question? – Dean Miller Mar 31 '25 at 08:48
  • Yes. I meant to say earlier I found a proof of this in a book, using the same notation as those posts you link. I just don’t have it with me at the moment. – ShadowPiper Mar 31 '25 at 13:29

1 Answers1

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The assumption \begin{equation} |\langle x,y\rangle '| \leq |\langle x,y\rangle | \tag{1} \end{equation} for all $x,y\in H$ is much stronger than what is needed for this problem. The following argument shows why. For each $x\in H\setminus \{0\}$ the maps $\psi_{x}\colon H\to \mathbb{F}$ and $\phi_{x}\colon H\to \mathbb{F}$ defined by \begin{equation} \psi_{x}(y) := \overline{\langle x,y\rangle '} \tag{2} \end{equation} and \begin{equation} \phi_{x}(y) := \overline{\langle x,y\rangle } \tag{3} \end{equation} respectively define continuous linear functionals on $H$. By $(1)$ we have $\ker \phi_{x} \subseteq \ker \psi_{x}$, so by this result, there is some $c_{x}\in \mathbb{F}$ such that $c_{x} \psi_{x} = \phi_{x}$. It follows that \begin{equation} \overline{c_{x}} \langle x, y\rangle ' = \langle x,y\rangle \tag{4} \end{equation} for all $y\in H$. By taking $y = x$ in $(4)$ and applying $(1)$, we see that $c_{x}$ is uniquely determined with $c_{x} \geq 1$, so for each $x\in H\setminus\{0\}$ there is a unique $c_{x} \geq 1$ such that \begin{equation} c_{x} \langle x, y\rangle ' = \langle x,y\rangle \end{equation} for all $y\in H$.

We claim that $c_{x} = c_{x'}$ for all $x, x'\in H\setminus\{0\}$. Suppose for a contradiction this is not the case. Since the equality clearly holds if one of $x$ or $x'$ is a scalar multiple of the other, we can assume that $x$ and $x'$ are linearly independent. Hence using the notation from $(2)$ and $(3)$, the linear functionals $\psi_{x}$ and $\psi_{x'}$ are linearly independent. Note that we can write \begin{equation} c_{x+x'}(\psi_{x} + \psi_{x'}) = \phi_{x+x'} = c_{x}\psi_{x} + c_{x'} \psi_{x'} , \end{equation} so that $\phi_{x+x'}$ can be expressed as a linear combination of $\psi_{x}$ and $\psi_{x'}$ in two distinct ways. But this contradicts the linear independence of $\psi_{x}$ and $\psi_{x'}$. Consequently, we have $c_{x} = c_{x'}$ for all $x, x' \in H\setminus \{0\}$. Therefore, the assumption $(1)$ implies that there is some $c\geq 1$ such that \begin{equation} c \langle x, y\rangle ' = \langle x, y\rangle \end{equation} for all $x,y\in H$, or equivalently \begin{equation} \langle x, y\rangle ' = \langle (c^{-1} I)(x), y\rangle \end{equation} for all $x,y\in H$. In particular, the bounded self-adjoint operator associated with $\langle \cdot , \cdot \rangle '$ is in fact a scalar multiple of the identity.

A more natural setting for this problem is to start with a sesquilinear form $\mathfrak{a}\colon H\times H \to \mathbb{F}$ satisfying the following assumptions. There is a $C\geq 0$ such that \begin{equation} |\mathfrak{a}(x,y)| \leq C \|x\| \|y\| \tag{5} \end{equation} for all $x,y\in H$ and \begin{equation} \mathfrak{a}(x,y) = \overline{\mathfrak{a}(y,x)} \tag{6} \end{equation} for all $x,y\in H$. Note that the inner product $\langle \cdot , \cdot \rangle '$ satisfies $(5)$ by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and $(6)$ by the conjugate symmetry of the inner product. From $(5)$ and this result we obtain a unique $T\in \mathscr{B}(H)$ such that \begin{equation} \mathfrak{a}(x,y) = \langle T(x), y\rangle \tag{7} \end{equation} for all $x,y\in H$. We now combine $(6)$ with this result to deduce that the operator $T$ from $(7)$ is self-adjoint.

With regards to your attempt, it looks like you were on the right track for the first part, although a few of the details are not quite right. For example, if you associate each $y\in H$ with the unique $T(y)\in H$ such that \begin{equation} \langle x,y \rangle ' = \langle x, T(y) \rangle \end{equation} for all $x\in H$, then the map $y\mapsto T(y)$ on $H$ is conjugate linear instead of linear.

Dean Miller
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