In mathematics, any vector space, V, has a corresponding dual vector space (or just dual space for short) consisting of all linear functionals on V. Dual vector spaces defined on finite-dimensional vector spaces can be used for defining tensors. When applied to vector spaces of functions (which typically are infinite-dimensional), dual spaces are employed for defining and studying concepts like measures, distributions, and Hilbert spaces. Consequently, the dual space is an important concept in the study of functional analysis.
There are two types of dual spaces: the algebraic dual space, and the continuous dual space. The algebraic dual space is defined for all vector spaces. When defined for a topological vector space there is a subspace of this dual space, corresponding to continuous linear functionals, which constitutes a continuous dual space.
Read more about Dual Space: Algebraic Dual Space, Continuous Dual Space
Famous quotes containing the words dual and/or space:
“Thee for my recitative,
Thee in the driving storm even as now, the snow, the winter-day
declining,
Thee in thy panoply, thy measur’d dual throbbing and thy beat
convulsive,
Thy black cylindric body, golden brass and silvery steel,”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“No being exists or can exist which is not related to space in some way. God is everywhere, created minds are somewhere, and body is in the space that it occupies; and whatever is neither everywhere nor anywhere does not exist. And hence it follows that space is an effect arising from the first existence of being, because when any being is postulated, space is postulated.”
—Isaac Newton (1642–1727)