Mackey–Arens theorem

The Mackey–Arens theorem is an important theorem in functional analysis that characterizes those locally convex vector topologies that have some given space of linear functionals as their continuous dual space. According to Narici (2011), this profound result is central to duality theory; a theory that is "the central part of the modern theory of topological vector spaces."

Prerequisites
Let $X$ be a vector space and let $Y$ be a vector subspace of the algebraic dual of $X$ that separates points on $X$. If $𝜏$ is any other locally convex Hausdorff topological vector space topology on $X$, then we say that $𝜏$ is compatible with duality between $X$ and $Y$ if when $X$ is equipped with $𝜏$, then it has $Y$ as its continuous dual space. If we give $X$ the weak topology $𝜎(X, Y)$ then $X_{𝜎(X, Y)}$ is a Hausdorff locally convex topological vector space (TVS) and $𝜎(X, Y)$ is compatible with duality between $X$ and $Y$ (i.e. $$X_{\sigma(X, Y)}^{\prime} = \left( X_{\sigma(X, Y)} \right)^{\prime} = Y$$). We can now ask the question: what are all of the locally convex Hausdorff TVS topologies that we can place on $X$ that are compatible with duality between $X$ and $Y$? The answer to this question is called the Mackey–Arens theorem.

Mackey–Arens theorem
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