where each eigenvalue is counted according to its geometric multiplicity. The eigenspaces are orthogonal in the space of square-integrable functions, and consist of smooth functions. In fact, the Dirichlet Laplacian has a continuous extension to an operator from the Sobolev space H^2_0(\Omega) into L^2(\Omega). This operator is invertible, and its inverse is compact and self-adjoint so that the usual spectral theorem can be applied to obtain the eigenspaces of Δ and the reciprocals 1/λ of its eigenvalues.
