On linearisation and existence of preduals (Q6562348)

The article contains generalisations of a classical observation of \textit{J. Dixmier} [Duke Math. J. 15, 1057--1071 (1948; Zbl 0031.36301)] and \textit{K.-F. Ng} [Math. Scand. 29, 279--280 (1972; Zbl 0243.46023)]: A Banach space has a predual if and only if its closed unit ball is compact with respect to some coarser Hausdorff locally convex topology. In concrete situations, e.g., of Banach spaces \(H(\Omega)\) of holomorphic functions on an open domain, Montel's theorem yields that the topology of uniform convergence on compact sets is often suitable so that one gets a linearisation of \(H(\Omega)\), i.e., functions \(f\in H(\Omega)\) can be considered as continuous linear functionals on the predual.\N\NIn the golden age of the locally convex theory, the Dixmier-Ng principle was generalized by \textit{J.~Mujica} [Math. Stud. 86, 319--329 (1984; Zbl 0546.46020)] to bornological locally convex spaces \((X,\tau)\) having a coarser Hausdorff locally convex topology \(\tilde \tau\) such that the \(\tau\)-bounded sets are relatively \(\tilde\tau\)-compact and \(\tau\) has a basis of \(\tilde\tau\)-closed \(0\)-neighbourhoods. This was applied, e.g., by \N\textit{K.~D. Bierstedt} and \textit{J.~Bonet} [In: Progress in functional analysis, Proc. Int. Meet. Occas. 60th Birthd. M. Valdivia, Peñíscola/Spain, North-Holland Math. Stud. 170, 113--133 (1992; Zbl 0804.46007)]\Nto weighted spaces of holomorphic functions.\N\NThe present article describes some abstract variations of that theme obtaining, among other things, results about the existence of prebiduals. Main examples are weighted spaces of smooth functions in the kernel of a linear hypoelliptic partial differential operator generalising some aspects of the special case of the Cauchy-Riemann operator treated by Bierstedt and Bonet [loc. cit.].