The existence of non-trivial bounded functionals implies the Hahn-Banach extension theorem (Q5945526)

The paper studies the relevance of some axioms in set theory for the proofs of Hahn-Banach extension theorem (HB) and of other fundamental results in analysis and topology. It is known that Zermelo-Frenkel's set theory (ZF) plus the axiom of choice (AC) has some strong implications in measure theory and functional analysis (existence of non-measurable sets, Banach-Tarski paradox, etc.). For this reason, weaker forms of it, as the axiom of dependent choices (DC), the prime ideal theorem (PI), and HB (taken as an axiom), were considered. It is known that AC \(\Rightarrow\) PI \(\Rightarrow\) HB and no one of these implications can be reversed. The aim of the present paper is to show that HB can not be proved in ZF \(+\) DC. More exactly, if \(S\) is a locally compact Hausdorff space with a \(\sigma\)-finite Radon measure then there is no non-trivial linear bounded functional on the space \(L_\infty (S)/C_0(S)\). In its turn, this property is equivalent to HB, in the sense that if on each non-trivial Banach space there exists a non-trivial bounded linear functional then HB holds. The paper discusses also relations of HB with other general properties as Baire property (every subset of \(\mathbb{R}\) have the Baire property), existence of non-measurable sets and Solovay's axiom (every subset of \(\mathbb{R}\) is Lebesgue measurable).