In
functional analysis
Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (for example, Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics ...
, the girth of a
Banach space
In mathematics, more specifically in functional analysis, a Banach space (, ) is a complete normed vector space. Thus, a Banach space is a vector space with a metric that allows the computation of vector length and distance between vectors and ...
is the
infimum
In mathematics, the infimum (abbreviated inf; : infima) of a subset S of a partially ordered set P is the greatest element in P that is less than or equal to each element of S, if such an element exists. If the infimum of S exists, it is unique ...
of lengths of
centrally symmetric simple closed curves in the
unit sphere
In mathematics, a unit sphere is a sphere of unit radius: the locus (mathematics), set of points at Euclidean distance 1 from some center (geometry), center point in three-dimensional space. More generally, the ''unit -sphere'' is an n-sphere, -s ...
of the space. Equivalently, it is twice the infimum of distances between opposite points of the sphere, as measured within the sphere.
[.][. See in particula]
p. 16
Every finite-dimensional Banach space has a pair of opposite points on the unit sphere that achieves the minimum distance, and a centrally symmetric simple closed curve that achieves the minimum length. However, such a curve may not always exist in infinite-dimensional spaces.
The girth is always at least four, because the shortest path on the unit sphere between two opposite points cannot be shorter than the length-two line segment connecting them through the origin of the space. A Banach space for which it is exactly four is said to be ''flat''. There exist flat Banach spaces of infinite dimension in which the girth is achieved by a minimum-length curve; an example is the space ''C''
,1of continuous functions from the
unit interval
In mathematics, the unit interval is the closed interval , that is, the set of all real numbers that are greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 1. It is often denoted ' (capital letter ). In addition to its role in real analysi ...
to the
real number
In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a continuous one- dimensional quantity such as a duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that pairs of values can have arbitrarily small differences. Every re ...
s, with the
sup norm
In mathematical analysis, the uniform norm (or ) assigns, to real- or complex-valued bounded functions defined on a set , the non-negative number
:\, f\, _\infty = \, f\, _ = \sup\left\.
This norm is also called the , the , the , or, when t ...
. The unit sphere of such a space has the counterintuitive property that certain pairs of opposite points have the same distance within the sphere that they do in the whole space.
The girth is a
continuous function
In mathematics, a continuous function is a function such that a small variation of the argument induces a small variation of the value of the function. This implies there are no abrupt changes in value, known as '' discontinuities''. More preci ...
on the
Banach–Mazur compactum, a space whose points correspond to the normed vector spaces of a given dimension.
The girth of the
dual space
In mathematics, any vector space ''V'' has a corresponding dual vector space (or just dual space for short) consisting of all linear forms on ''V,'' together with the vector space structure of pointwise addition and scalar multiplication by cons ...
of a normed vector space is always equal to the girth of the original space.
[.]
See also
*
Systolic geometry
In mathematics, systolic geometry is the study of systolic invariants of manifolds and polyhedra, as initially conceived by Charles Loewner and developed by Mikhail Gromov, Michael Freedman, Peter Sarnak, Mikhail Katz, Larry Guth, and ...
References
Banach spaces
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