In mathematics, the Grothendieck inequality states that there is a universal constant k with the following property. If ai,j is an n by n (real or complex) matrix with
for all (real or complex) numbers si, tj of absolute value at most 1, then
for all vectors Si, Tj in the unit ball B(H) of a (real or complex) Hilbert space H, the constant k being independent of n. For a fixed n, the smallest constant which satisfies this property for all n by n matrices is called a Grothendieck constant and denoted k(n). In fact there are two Grothendieck constants kR(n) and kC(n) for each n depending on whether one works with real or complex numbers, respectively.
The Grothendieck inequality and Grothendieck constants are named after Alexander Grothendieck, who proved the inequality and the existence of the constants in a paper published in 1953.
The sequences kR(n) and kC(n) are easily seen to be increasing, and Grothendieck's result states that they are bounded, so they have limits.
With kR defined to be supnkR(n) then Grothendieck proved that: .