An L^p space may be defined as a space of measurable functions for which the p-th power of the
absolute value is
Lebesgue integrable, where functions which agree almost everywhere are identified. More generally, let (S, \Sigma, \mu) be a
measure space and 1 \leq p \leq \infty. When p \neq \infty, consider the set \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) of all
measurable functions f from S to \Complex or \Reals whose
absolute value raised to the p-th power has a finite integral, or in symbols: \|f\|_p ~\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}~ \left(\int_S |f|^p\;\mathrm{d}\mu\right)^{1/p} To define the set for p = \infty, recall that two functions f and g defined on S are said to be , written , if the set \{s \in S : f(s) \neq g(s)\} is measurable and has measure zero. Similarly, a measurable function f (and its
absolute value) is (or ) by a real number C, written , if the (necessarily) measurable set \{s \in S : |f(s)| > C\} has measure zero. The space \mathcal{L}^\infty(S,\mu) is the set of all measurable functions f that are bounded almost everywhere (by some real C) and \|f\|_\infty is defined as the
infimum of these bounds: \|f\|_\infty ~\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}~ \inf \{C \in \Reals_{\geq 0} : |f(s)| \leq C \text{ for almost every } s\}. When \mu(S) \neq 0 then this is the same as the
essential supremum of the absolute value of f:{{refn|group=note|If \mu(S) = 0 then \operatorname{esssup}|f| = -\infty.}} \|f\|_\infty ~=~ \begin{cases}\operatorname{esssup}|f| & \text{if } \mu(S) > 0,\\ 0 & \text{if } \mu(S) = 0.\end{cases} For example, if f is a measurable function that is equal to 0 almost everywhere then \|f\|_p = 0 for every p and thus f \in \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) for all p. For every positive p, the value under \|\,\cdot\,\|_p of a measurable function f and its absolute value |f| : S \to [0, \infty] are always the same (that is, \|f\|_p = \||f|\|_p for all p) and so a measurable function belongs to \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) if and only if its absolute value does. Because of this, many formulas involving p-norms are stated only for non-negative real-valued functions. Consider for example the identity \|f\|_p^r = \|f^r\|_{p/r}, which holds whenever f \geq 0 is measurable, r > 0 is real, and 0 (here \infty / r \;\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}\; \infty when p = \infty). The non-negativity requirement f \geq 0 can be removed by substituting |f| in for f, which gives \|\,|f|\,\|_p^r = \|\,|f|^r\,\|_{p/r}. Note in particular that when p = r is finite then the formula \|f\|_p^p = \||f|^p\|_1 relates the p-norm to the 1-norm.
Seminormed space of p-th power integrable functions Each set of functions \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) forms a
vector space when addition and scalar multiplication are defined pointwise. That the sum of two p-th power integrable functions f and g is again p-th power integrable follows from \|f + g\|_p^p \leq 2^{p-1} \left(\|f\|_p^p + \|g\|_p^p\right), although it is also a consequence of ''
Minkowski's inequality'' \|f + g\|_p \leq \|f\|_p + \|g\|_p which establishes that \|\cdot\|_p satisfies the
triangle inequality for 1 \leq p \leq \infty (the triangle inequality does not hold for 0 ). That \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) is closed under scalar multiplication is due to \|\cdot\|_p being
absolutely homogeneous, which means that \|s f\|_p = |s| \|f\|_p for every scalar s and every function f.
Absolute homogeneity, the
triangle inequality, and non-negativity are the defining properties of a
seminorm. Thus \|\cdot\|_p is a seminorm and the set \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) of p-th power integrable functions together with the function \|\cdot\|_p defines a
seminormed vector space. In general, the
seminorm \|\cdot\|_p is not a
norm because there might exist measurable functions f that satisfy \|f\|_p = 0 but are not equal to 0 (\|\cdot\|_p is a norm if and only if no such f exists).
Zero sets of p-seminorms If f is measurable and equals 0 a.e. then \|f\|_p = 0 for all positive p \leq \infty. On the other hand, if f is a measurable function for which there exists some 0 such that \|f\|_p = 0 then f = 0 almost everywhere. When p is finite then this follows from the p = 1 case and the formula \|f\|_p^p = \||f|^p\|_1 mentioned above. \|f\|_p^r = \|f^r\|_{p/r}, which holds whenever f \geq 0 is measurable, r > 0 is real, and 0 (where \infty / r \;\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}\; \infty when p = \infty)). --> Thus if p \leq \infty is positive and f is any measurable function, then \|f\|_p = 0 if and only if f = 0
almost everywhere. Since the right hand side (f = 0 a.e.) does not mention p, it follows that all \|\cdot\|_p have the same
zero set (it does not depend on p). So denote this common set by \mathcal{N} \;\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}\; \{f : f = 0 \ \mu\text{-almost everywhere} \} = \{f \in \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) : \|f\|_p = 0\} \qquad \forall \ p. This set is a vector subspace of \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) for every positive p \leq \infty.
Quotient vector space Like every
seminorm, the seminorm \|\cdot\|_p induces a
norm (defined shortly) on the canonical
quotient vector space of \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) by its vector subspace \mathcal{N} = \{f \in \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) : \|f\|_p = 0\}. This normed quotient space is called and it is the subject of this article. We begin by defining the quotient vector space. Given any f \in \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu), the
coset f + \mathcal{N} \;\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}\; \{f + h : h \in \mathcal{N}\} consists of all measurable functions g that are equal to f
almost everywhere. The set of all cosets, typically denoted by \mathcal{L}^p(S, \mu) / \mathcal{N} ~~\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}~~ \{f + \mathcal{N} : f \in \mathcal{L}^p(S, \mu)\}, forms a vector space with origin 0 + \mathcal{N} = \mathcal{N} when vector addition and scalar multiplication are defined by (f + \mathcal{N}) + (g + \mathcal{N}) \;\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}\; (f + g) + \mathcal{N} and s (f + \mathcal{N}) \;\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}\; (s f) + \mathcal{N}. This particular quotient vector space will be denoted by L^p(S,\, \mu) ~\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}~ \mathcal{L}^p(S, \mu) / \mathcal{N}. Two cosets are equal f + \mathcal{N} = g + \mathcal{N} if and only if g \in f + \mathcal{N} (or equivalently, f - g \in \mathcal{N}), which happens if and only if f = g almost everywhere; if this is the case then f and g are identified in the quotient space. Hence, strictly speaking L^p(S,\, \mu) consists of
equivalence classes of functions.
The p-norm on the quotient vector space Given any f \in \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu), the value of the seminorm \|\cdot\|_p on the
coset f + \mathcal{N} = \{f + h : h \in \mathcal{N}\} is constant and equal to \|f\|_p; denote this unique value by \|f + \mathcal{N}\|_p, so that: \|f + \mathcal{N}\|_p \;\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}\; \|f\|_p. This assignment f + \mathcal{N} \mapsto \|f + \mathcal{N}\|_p defines a map, which will also be denoted by \|\cdot\|_p, on the
quotient vector space L^p(S, \mu) ~~\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle\text{def}}{=}~~ \mathcal{L}^p(S, \mu) / \mathcal{N} ~=~ \{f + \mathcal{N} : f \in \mathcal{L}^p(S, \mu)\}. This map is a
norm on L^p(S, \mu) called the . The value \|f + \mathcal{N}\|_p of a coset f + \mathcal{N} is independent of the particular function f that was chosen to represent the coset, meaning that if \mathcal{C} \in L^p(S, \mu) is any coset then \|\mathcal{C}\|_p = \|f\|_p for every f \in \mathcal{C} (since \mathcal{C} = f + \mathcal{N} for every f \in \mathcal{C}).
The Lebesgue L^p space The
normed vector space \left(L^p(S, \mu), \|\cdot\|_p\right) is called or the of p-th power integrable functions and it is a
Banach space for every 1 \leq p \leq \infty (meaning that it is a
complete metric space, a result that is sometimes called the
\cdot\|_p on \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) happens to be a norm (which happens if and only if \mathcal{N} = \{0\}) then the normed space \left(\mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu), \|\cdot\|_p\right) will be linearly</a> isometrically isomorphic to the normed quotient space \left(L^p(S, \mu), \|\cdot\|_p\right) via the canonical map g \in \mathcal{L}^p(S,\, \mu) \mapsto \{g\} (since g + \mathcal{N} = \{g\}); in other words, they will be,
up to a
linear isometry, the same normed space and so they may both be called "L^p space". The above definitions generalize to
Bochner spaces. In general, this process cannot be reversed: there is no consistent way to define a "canonical" representative of each coset of \mathcal{N} in L^p. For L^\infty, however, there is a
theory of lifts enabling such recovery.
Special cases For 1 \leq p \leq \infty the \ell^p spaces are a special case of L^p spaces; when S are the
natural numbers \mathbb{N} and \mu is the
counting measure. More generally, if one considers any set S with the counting measure, the resulting L^p space is denoted \ell^p(S). For example, \ell^p(\mathbb{Z}) is the space of all sequences indexed by the integers, and when defining the p-norm on such a space, one sums over all the integers. The space \ell^p(n), where n is the set with n elements, is \Reals^n with its p-norm as defined above. Similar to \ell^2 spaces, L^2 is the only
Hilbert space among L^p spaces. In the complex case, the inner product on L^2 is defined by \langle f, g \rangle = \int_S f(x) \overline{g(x)} \, \mathrm{d}\mu(x). Functions in L^2 are sometimes called
square-integrable functions,
quadratically integrable functions or
square-summable functions, but sometimes these terms are reserved for functions that are square-integrable in some other sense, such as in the sense of a
Riemann integral . As any Hilbert space, every space L^2 is linearly isometric to a suitable \ell^2(I), where the cardinality of the set I is the cardinality of an arbitrary basis for this particular L^2. If we use complex-valued functions, the space L^\infty is a
commutative C*-algebra with pointwise multiplication and conjugation. For many measure spaces, including all sigma-finite ones, it is in fact a commutative
von Neumann algebra. An element of L^\infty defines a
bounded operator on any L^p space by
multiplication.
When If 0 then L^p(\mu) can be defined as above, that is: N_p(f) = \int_S |f|^p\, d\mu In this case, however, the p-norm \|f\|_p = N_p(f)^{1/p} does not satisfy the triangle inequality and defines only a
quasi-norm. The inequality (a + b)^p \leq a^p + b^p, valid for a, b \geq 0, implies that N_p(f + g) \leq N_p(f) + N_p(g) and so the function d_p(f ,g) = N_p(f - g) = \|f - g\|_p^p is a metric on L^p(\mu). The resulting metric space is
complete. In this setting L^p satisfies a
reverse Minkowski inequality, that is for u, v \in L^p \Big\||u| + |v|\Big\|_p \geq \|u\|_p + \|v\|_p This result may be used to prove
Clarkson's inequalities, which are in turn used to establish the
uniform convexity of the spaces L^p for 1 . The space L^p for 0 is an
F-space: it admits a complete translation-invariant metric with respect to which the vector space operations are continuous. It is the prototypical example of an
F-space that, for most reasonable measure spaces, is not
locally convex: in \ell^p or L^p([0, 1]), every open convex set containing the 0 function is unbounded for the p-quasi-norm; therefore, the 0 vector does not possess a fundamental system of convex neighborhoods. Specifically, this is true if the measure space S contains an infinite family of disjoint measurable sets of finite positive measure. The only nonempty convex open set in L^p([0, 1]) is the entire space. Consequently, there are no nonzero continuous linear functionals on L^p([0, 1]); the
continuous dual space is the zero space. In the case of the
counting measure on the natural numbers (i.e. L^p(\mu) = \ell^p), the bounded linear functionals on \ell^p are exactly those that are bounded on \ell^1, i.e., those given by sequences in \ell^\infty. Although \ell^p does contain non-trivial convex open sets, it fails to have enough of them to give a base for the topology. Having no linear functionals is highly undesirable for the purposes of doing analysis. In case of the Lebesgue measure on \Reals^n, rather than work with L^p for 0 it is common to work with the
Hardy space whenever possible, as this has quite a few linear functionals: enough to distinguish points from one another. However, the
Hahn–Banach theorem still fails in for p . ==Properties==