Suppose X is a
topological vector space (TVS) over a
topological field \mathbb{K}. A subset B of X is called '
or just ' in X if any of the following equivalent conditions are satisfied: : For every neighborhood V of the origin there exists a real r > 0 such that B \subseteq s V for all scalars s satisfying |s| \geq r. • This was the definition introduced by
John von Neumann in 1935. B is
absorbed by every
neighborhood of the origin. For every neighborhood V of the origin there exists a scalar s such that B \subseteq s V. For every neighborhood V of the origin there exists a real r > 0 such that s B \subseteq V for all scalars s satisfying |s| \leq r. For every neighborhood V of the origin there exists a real r > 0 such that t B \subseteq V for all real 0 Any one of statements (1) through (5) above but with the word "neighborhood" replaced by any of the following: "
balanced neighborhood," "open balanced neighborhood," "closed balanced neighborhood," "open neighborhood," "closed neighborhood". • e.g. Statement (2) may become: B is bounded if and only if B is absorbed by every
balanced neighborhood of the origin. • If X is
locally convex then the adjective "convex" may be also be added to any of these 5 replacements. For every sequence of scalars s_1, s_2, s_3, \ldots that converges to 0 and every sequence b_1, b_2, b_3, \ldots in B, the sequence s_1 b_1, s_2 b_2, s_3 b_3, \ldots converges to 0 in X. • This was the definition of "bounded" that
Andrey Kolmogorov used in 1934, which is the same as the definition introduced by
Stanisław Mazur and
Władysław Orlicz in 1933 for metrizable TVS. Kolmogorov used this definition to prove that a TVS is seminormable if and only if it has a bounded convex neighborhood of the origin. For every sequence b_1, b_2, b_3, \ldots in B, the sequence \left(\tfrac{1}{i} b_i\right)_{i=1}^{\infty} converges to 0 in X. Every
countable subset of B is bounded (according to any defining condition other than this one). If \mathcal{B} is a
neighborhood basis for X at the origin then this list may be extended to include: Any one of statements (1) through (5) above but with the neighborhoods limited to those belonging to \mathcal{B}. • e.g. Statement (3) may become: For every V \in \mathcal{B} there exists a scalar s such that B \subseteq s V. If X is a
locally convex space whose topology is defined by a family \mathcal{P} of continuous
seminorms, then this list may be extended to include: p(B) is bounded for all p \in \mathcal{P}. There exists a sequence of non-zero scalars s_1, s_2, s_3, \ldots such that for every sequence b_1, b_2, b_3, \ldots in B, the sequence b_1 s_1, b_2 s_2, b_3 s_3, \ldots is bounded in X (according to any defining condition other than this one). For all p \in \mathcal{P}, B is bounded (according to any defining condition other than this one) in the
semi normed space (X, p). B is weakly bounded, i.e. every continuous linear functional is bounded on B If X is a
normed space with
norm \|\cdot\| (or more generally, if it is a
seminormed space and \|\cdot\| is merely a
seminorm), then this list may be extended to include: B is a
norm bounded subset of (X, \|\cdot\|). By definition, this means that there exists a real number r > 0 such that \|b\| \leq r for all b \in B. \sup_{b \in B} \|b\| • Thus, if L : (X, \|\cdot\|) \to (Y, \|\cdot\|) is a
linear map between two normed (or seminormed) spaces and if B is the closed (alternatively, open) unit ball in (X, \|\cdot\|) centered at the origin, then L is a
bounded linear operator (which recall means that its
operator norm \|L\| := \sup_{b \in B} \|L(b)\| is finite) if and only if the image L(B) of this ball under L is a norm bounded subset of (Y, \|\cdot\|). B is a subset of some (open or closed) ball. • This ball need not be centered at the origin, but its radius must (as usual) be positive and finite. If B is a vector subspace of the TVS X then this list may be extended to include: B is contained in the closure of \{0\}. • In other words, a vector subspace of X is bounded if and only if it is a subset of (the vector space) \operatorname{cl}_X \{0\}. • Recall that X is a
Hausdorff space if and only if \{0\} is closed in X. So the only bounded vector subspace of a Hausdorff TVS is \{0\}. A subset that is not bounded is called .
Bornology and fundamental systems of bounded sets The collection of all bounded sets on a topological vector space X is called the or the () A or of X is a set \mathcal{B} of bounded subsets of X such that every bounded subset of X is a subset of some B \in \mathcal{B}. The set of all bounded subsets of X trivially forms a fundamental system of bounded sets of X.
Examples In any
locally convex TVS, the set of closed and bounded
disks are a base of bounded set. ==Examples and sufficient conditions==