On the representation theorems of Riesz and Schwartz (Q2381100)

The authors use the terminology of the theory of distributions to give elementary proofs of Riesz's representation theorem and Schwartz's theorem in one and two dimensions. \( \mathcal{K}( ]0, 1[)\) is the space of real-valued continuous functions on \( ]0, 1[ \) with compact supports and \( \mathcal{D}( ]0, 1[)\) its subspace consisting of infinitely differentiable functions. For a function \(F \in L^{1}_{\text{loc}} ( ]0, 1[) \), \( \| DF \| = \sup \{ \int_{0}^{1} F(t) u'(t)\, dt: u \in \mathcal{D}( ]0, 1[), \: \| u \| \leq 1 \}\); it is said to be of bounded variation if \( \| DF \| < \infty \). Also \( \Omega= ]0, 1[ \times ]0, 1[ \) is considered. Main Results: I. For a bounded measure \( \mu \) on \(]0, 1[ \), there exists a function \(F: ]0, 1[ \to R\), of bounded variation, such that, in the sense of distributions, \( \mu= \partial F\) and \( \| \mu \| = \| DF \| \). As a corollary from this result: Let \(f\) be a distribution on \( ]0, 1[ \) such that \( \partial f\) is a bounded measure \( \mu \) on \( ]0, 1[ \). Then \(f\) is a function of bounded variation. II. Given a bounded measure \( \mu\) on \( \Omega \), there is a function \(F \in L^{\infty} ( \Omega )\) such that, in the sense of distributions, \( \mu = \partial_{x} \partial_{y} F\).