Bounded and unbounded polynomials and multilinear forms: Characterizing continuity (Q648941)

This nice short paper has a twofold purpose: on one hand to characterize continuity of (not necessarily homogeneous) polynomials defined on normed spaces in terms of compact sets and of connected sets; on the other hand, to prove the lineability of the sets of non-continuous polynomials and multilinear forms on infinite dimensional normed spaces. It is well known that every \(n\)-homogeneous polynomial defined between normed spaces which is bounded on compact sets is continuous. When working with the complex field, one gets the analogue for non-homogeneous polynomials as a consequence of Cauchy's inequalities. However, the real case needs a different approach. The first result of the paper provides the desired characterization of continuity for (not necessarily homogeneous) polynomials in terms of compactness in the real case: a polynomial defined on a normed space is continuous if and only if it maps compact sets into compact sets. If instead of compact sets one considers connected sets then the following partial result is given: a linear form or a \(2\)-homogeneous polynomial defined on a real Banach space is continuous if and only if it maps connected sets into connected sets. The concept of lineability was introduced by V. I. Gurariy in 1988. A set \(M\) of functions satisfying some pathological property is said to be \(\mu\)-lineable if \(M\cup \{0\}\) contains an infinite dimensional vector space of dimension \(\mu\). The following result is shown: if \(n\) is a natural number and \(E\) is a normed space of infinite dimension \(\lambda\) then the sets of non-bounded \(n\)-linear forms, non-bounded symmetric \(n\)-linear forms, non-bounded \(n\)-homogeneous polynomials and non-bounded polynomials of degree at most \(n\) on \(E\) are \(2^\lambda\)-lineable.