An introductory course in functional analysis (Q405560)

The book under review is based on a one semester course taught under the heading ``Introduction to Functional Analysis'' by the late Nigel Kalton in Spring 2010. The book starts from the definition of a normed space and of a Banach space, proceeding immediately to describe classical examples of Banach spaces: sequence spaces \(\ell_p\), \(1\leq p\leq\infty\), and \(c_0\), function spaces \(L_p(\Omega,\Sigma,\mu)\), \(1\leq p\leq\infty\), on a general measure space \((\Omega,\Sigma,\mu)\), and \(C(K)\) on a compact space \(K\). This start allows the lecturer to provide examples with every notion and result as they are introduced throughout the course. Great care is taken to provide an abundance of examples which both aid a deeper understanding of the new notions/results and introduce a rich, thoughtful selection of spaces/objects studied in modern functional analysis. For example, right after the introduction of the Hahn-Banach theorem, there is a section devoted to the Haar measure on compact abelian groups, which illustrates the power of the Hahn-Banach theorem and, at the same time, gives a first glimpse of the theory of compact groups. Two chapters later there is another section devoted to the proof of the existence of the Haar measure on compact groups which are not necessarily abelian. This time the proof uses several results about the structure of convex sets which are presented in the course. The leitmotif of this book is to intertwine the presentation of the theory with interesting and deep applications of the theory to the study of various objects and problems in functional analysis and beyond. For example, there is a section showing how to apply the theory of compact Hermitian operators to solve differential equations. Nigel Kalton was a very active researcher whose work significantly advanced many areas of functional analysis and opened many new directions of study. As Gilles Godefroy writes in the foreword to the book under review: ``The great book of Mathematics was wide open in front of Nigel Kalton, who could browse through it with no apparent effort, and share with his colleagues and students his enlightening vision.'' Thus it is not at all surprising that the selection of topics which are included in the book under review shows both deep understanding of the underlying interrelations of concepts and a great plan to expose students to results important in modern research in functional analysis and related areas. The book contains eight chapters and two appendices: 1. Introduction; 2. Classical Banach spaces and their duals; 3. The Hahn-Banach theorems; 4. Consequences of completeness; 5. Consequences of convexity; 6. Compact operators and Fredholm theory; 7. Hilbert space theory; 8. Banach algebras; A. Basics of measure theory; B. Results from other areas of mathematics. The text is very well written. Great care is taken to discuss interrelations of results. The proofs are presented carefully and are very readable. One can almost feel the presence of a great lecturer in the room. Each chapter ends with well selected exercises, typically around 20 exercises per chapter. The book is not wordy, which I consider to be one of its pluses. It consists of 35 sections, so an organized lecturer with a good group of students could possibly go through most of it in a semester. I will certainly try it next time that I teach a functional analysis course. I believe that this book is also suitable for self-study by an interested student. It can also serve as an excellent, concise reference for researchers in any area of mathematics seeking to recall/clarify fundamental concepts/results from functional analysis, in their proper context.