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I'm searching references for proofs about the existence of inequivalent complete norms in infinite dimensional vector spaces with no luck at the moment. In particular I'm searching a proof of the following assertion:

Let $X$ an infinite-dimensional vector space such that it have a norm $\|\,\cdot\, \|_1$ that makes it a Banach space, then there exists a norm $\|\,\cdot\, \|_2$ that also makes $X$ a Banach space and that it's not equivalent to the first one.

It's trivial to show that in any infinite-dimensional Banach space $(X,\|\,\cdot\, \|_1)$ there are infinitely many norms on $X$ that are not equivalent to $\|\,\cdot\, \|_1$, however is far from clear that there is at least one of these norms that also makes $X$ a Banach space.

Can someone help me? Books better rather than articles if possible, thank you. If there is no known source I will accept a proof as an answer.

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    A proof of the assertion is outlined here. – Dean Miller Aug 10 '24 at 08:39
  • Related: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1925533/complete-inequivalent-norms – Gerd Aug 10 '24 at 08:45
  • @Dean I asked there, in the comments, to see a complete proof yesterday –  Aug 10 '24 at 08:56
  • @Masacroso I am not aware of a book which proves this result, but I can provide a complete proof as an answer to this question if you would like. – Dean Miller Aug 10 '24 at 09:00
  • @Dean ok, we will like to see a proof of it –  Aug 10 '24 at 09:04
  • In the separable case, all separable infinite-dimensional Banach spaces have Hamel dimension $\mathfrak{c}$, so you could just take a linear isomorphism $\pi$ to any separable infinite-dimensional Banach space $Y$ not isomorphic to $(X, |\cdot|_1)$ and let $|\cdot|_2 = |\pi(\cdot)|_Y$. – David Gao Aug 10 '24 at 09:14

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Lemma 1: Let $(X, \|\cdot\|)$ be an infinite-dimensional normed space. Then there exists a linear bijection $T$ from $X$ onto itself which is not a bounded linear operator on $(X, \|\cdot\|)$.

Proof: Let $\phi$ be an unbounded linear functional on $(X, \|\cdot\| )$. For a proof that such linear functionals exist, see this post. Choose $y\in X$ such that $\phi (y) = 1$. (Note that $y\neq 0$.) Define $T:X\to X$ by $T(x) := x - 2\phi (x)y$. Observe that $T$ is linear because $\phi$ is linear. If $x\in X$, then \begin{align*} T(T(x)) &= T(x) - 2\phi (T(x))y \\ &= (x - 2\phi (x)y) - 2\phi (x - 2\phi (x)y)y \\ &= x - 2\phi (x)y - 2[\phi (x) - 2\phi (x)\phi (y)]y \\ &= x - 2\phi (x)y - 2[-\phi (x)]y \\ &= x - 2\phi (x)y + 2\phi (x)y \\ &= x. \end{align*} Therefore $T$ is invertible with $T^{-1} = T$.

Suppose for a contradiction that $T$ is a bounded linear operator on $(X, \|\cdot\|)$. Then there is some $C>0$ such that $\|T(x)\| \leq C\|x\|$ for all $x\in X$. It follows for any $x\in X$ that \begin{align*} |\phi (x)| &= \|2y\|^{-1} |\phi (x)| \|2y\| \\ &= \|2y\|^{-1} \|2\phi (x) y\| \\ &= \|2y\|^{-1} \|(2\phi (x) y - x) + x\| \\ &\leq \|2y\|^{-1} (\|T(x)\| + \|x\|) \\ &\leq \|2y\|^{-1} (C\|x\| + \|x\|) \\ &= [\|2y\|^{-1}(C+1)] \|x\|. \end{align*} This shows that $\phi$ is a bounded linear functional on $(X, \|\cdot\|)$ which is a contradiction. Therefore $T$ cannot be a bounded linear operator on $(X, \|\cdot\|)$.

Lemma 2: Let $(Y, \|\cdot\|_{Y} )$ be a normed space. Suppose $X$ is another vector space over the same field as $Y$ and $T:X\to Y$ is an injective linear map. Define $\|\cdot \|_{X}:X\to [0, \infty )$ by $\|x\|_{X} := \|T(x)\|_{Y}$. Then $\|\cdot \|_{X}$ is a norm on $X$. If $\|\cdot\|_{Y}$ is a complete norm and $T$ is also surjective, then $\|\cdot\|_{X}$ is also a complete norm.

Proof: Let $x\in X$ such that $\|x\|_{X} = 0$. Then $\|T(x)\|_{Y} = 0$ and $T(x) = 0$ since $\|\cdot\|_{Y}$ is a norm on $Y$. As $T$ is injective, it follows that $x=0$.

Next, if $x,y\in X$ and $\alpha \in \mathbb{K}$, then by the linearity of $T$, \begin{equation} \|x+y\|_{X} = \|T(x+y)\|_{Y} = \|T(x) + T(y)\|_{Y} \leq \|T(x)\|_{Y} + \|T(y)\|_{Y} = \|x\|_{X} + \|y\|_{X} \end{equation} and \begin{equation} \|\alpha x \|_{X} = \|T(\alpha x) \|_{Y} = \| \alpha T(x) \|_{Y} = |\alpha | \|T(x)\|_{Y} = |\alpha | \|x\|_{X} \end{equation} hold. It follows that $\|\cdot\|_{X}$ is a norm on $X$.

Now suppose $\|\cdot\|_{Y}$ is a complete norm. Let $(x_{n})_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ be a Cauchy sequence in $(X, \|\cdot\|_{X})$. Then \begin{align*} \|x_{m} - x_{n}\|_{X} = \|T(x_{m} - x_{n}) \|_{Y} = \|T(x_{m}) - T(x_{n})\|_{Y} \end{align*} for all $m,n\in\mathbb{N}$. This shows that $(T(x_{n}))_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ is a Cauchy sequence in $(Y, \|\cdot\|_{Y})$. Since $\|\cdot\|_{Y}$ is a complete norm, the Cauchy sequence $(T(x_{n}))_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ has a limit $y$ in $Y$. Choose $x\in X$ such that $T(x) = y$, which can be done because $T$ is surjective. Then \begin{align*} \|x_{n} - x\|_{X} = \|T(x_{n} - x)\|_{Y} = \|T(x_{n}) - T(x)\|_{Y} = \|T(x_{n}) - y\|_{Y} \end{align*} for each $n\in\mathbb{N}$. It follows that \begin{equation} \lim_{n\to\infty} \|x_{n} - x\|_{X} = \lim_{n\to\infty} \|T(x_{n}) - y\|_{Y} = 0 \end{equation} and the sequence $(x_{n})_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ converges to $x$ in $X$. Hence $\|\cdot\|_{X}$ is a complete norm on $X$.

Theorem: Let $X$ be an infinite-dimensional vector space with a complete norm $\|\cdot\|_{1}$. Then there exists another complete norm $\|\cdot\|_{2}$ on $X$ which is not equivalent to $\|\cdot\|_{1}$.

Proof: By Lemma 1, there exists a linear bijection $T:X\to X$ which is not a bounded linear operator on $(X, \|\cdot\|_{1})$. Define $\|\cdot\|_{2}:X\to [0, \infty )$ by $\|x\|_{2} := \|T(x)\|_{1}$. By Lemma 2, $\|\cdot\|_{2}$ is a complete norm on $X$. If the norms were equivalent, there would exist some $C>0$ such that $\|x\|_{2} \leq C \|x\|_{1}$ for all $x\in X$. But this would imply that $\|T(x)\|_{1} \leq C\|x\|_{1}$ for all $x\in X$ which cannot occur since $T$ is not a bounded linear operator on $(X, \|\cdot\|_{1})$. Therefore the norms $\|\cdot\|_{1}$ and $\|\cdot\|_{2}$ are not equivalent.

Dean Miller
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    yesterday I tried the same proof there up to the point where we had $|Tx_n-y|\to 0$, and I was unsure of the correctness to took $x:=T^{-1}y$ as a candidate for the limit of ${x_n}_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ as I thought that this would imply that $T$ is continuous, what cannot be the case if it was assumed to be unbounded. Thank you for clarifying the question. –  Aug 10 '24 at 11:18
  • No problem! It's great to hear that helped. – Dean Miller Aug 10 '24 at 11:22