Constructing extensions of ultraweakly continuous linear functionals (Q1840580)

Let \(\mathcal R\subset B(H)\) be a linear space of bounded operators on a Hilbert space \(H\), and let \(f: \mathcal R\to {\mathbb C}\) be an ultraweakly continuous linear functional. It is a classical result in operator theory whose proof involves the Hahn-Banach theorem and thus Zorn's lemma that such a functional has the form \(f(T)= \sum_{n=1}^\infty \langle Tx_{n}, y_{n} \rangle\) for suitable sequences \((x_{n}), (y_{n}) \in \ell_{2}(H)\). In this paper the authors prove the above result in the framework of constructive mathematics as expounded in \textit{E. Bishop} and \textit{D. Bridges}, ``Constructive analysis'', Springer (1985; Zbl 0656.03042). In order to achieve this they have to make some classically redundant assumptions, e.g., that \(H\) has an orthonormal basis.