The Hahn-Banach theorem for non-Archimedean-valued fields

Abstract

1. The Hahn-Banach theorem on the extension of linear functionals holds in real and complex Banach spaces, but it is well known that it is not in general true in a normed linear space over a field with a non-Archimedean valuation. Sufficient conditions for its truth in such a space have been given, however, by Monna and by Cohen‡. In the present paper, we show that a necessary condition for the property is that the space be totally non-Archimedean in the sense of Monna, and establish a necessary and sufficient condition on the field for the theorem to hold in every totally non-Archimedean space over the field. This result is obtained as a special case of a more general theorem concerning linear operators, which is analogous to a theorem of Nachbin ((6), Theorem 1) concerning operators in real Banach spaces.