Riesz representation theorem

There are several well-known theorems in functional analysis known as the Riesz representation theorem. They are named in honour of Frigyes Riesz.

This article will describe his theorem concerning the dual of a Hilbert space, which is sometimes called the Fréchet-Riesz theorem. For the theorems relating linear functionals to measures, see Riesz–Markov–Kakutani representation theorem.

This theorem establishes an important connection between a Hilbert space and its (continuous) dual space. If the underlying field is the real numbers, the two are isometrically isomorphic; if the underlying field is the complex numbers, the two are isometrically anti-isomorphic. The (anti-) isomorphism is a particular, natural one as will be described next.

Let H be a Hilbert space, and let H* denote its dual space, consisting of all continuous linear functionals from H into the field ${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} }$ or ${\displaystyle \mathbb {C} }$. If ${\displaystyle x}$ is an element of H, then the function ${\displaystyle \varphi _{x}}$, for all ${\displaystyle y}$ in H defined by

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