Sequential normal compactness versus topological normal compactness in variational analysis. (Q1400278): Difference between revisions

In this paper the relationships between sequential normal compactness and its topological counterpart are studied for general Banach spaces. Let \(\Omega\) be a subset of a Banach space \((X,\|\cdot\|)\), and let \(\bar{x}\in \Omega\). The {Fréchet} normal cone to \(\Omega\) at \(\bar{x}\) is \[ \widehat{N}(\bar{x};\Omega):= \left\{x^{\ast}\in X^{\ast}: \limsup_{x\rightarrow \bar{x}}\frac{\langle x^{\ast},x-\bar{x}\rangle}{| x-\bar{x}|}\leq 0 \right\}, \] where \(x\rightarrow \bar{x}\) means that \(x\) converges to \(\bar{x}\) with \(x\in \Omega\) and \(X^{\ast}\) stands for the dual of \(X\). The set \(\Omega\) is said to be {topologically normally compact} -- briefly TNC -- if for every net \(((x_{\tau},x_{\tau}^{\ast}))_{\tau\in T}\) in \(X\times X^{\ast}\) such that \((x_{\tau}^{\ast})_{\tau\in T}\) is bounded, \(x_{\tau}^{\ast}\in \hat{N}(x_{\tau};\Omega)\) for each \(\tau\in T\), \(\| x_{\tau}-\bar{x}\|\to 0\), and \(x_{\tau}^{\ast}\rightarrow 0\) for the weak\(^{\ast}\) topology of \(X^{\ast}\) one has \(\| x_{\tau}^{\ast}\|\rightarrow 0\); \(\Omega\) is {sequentially normally compact} -- briefly SNC -- at \(\bar{x}\) if the previous relations hold when nets are replaced by sequences. Clearly TNC implies SNC and both properties hold for finite dimensional spaces. Two main results are proved: (A) TNC and SNC are equivalent for the class of Banach spaces \(X\) whose dual unit balls endowed with the weak\(^{\ast}\) topology \((B_{X^{\ast}},\text{w}^{\ast})\) are Corson compact; (B) if \((B_{X^{\ast}},\text{w}^{\ast})\) is not sequentially compact then there is always a closed set \(0\in \Omega\subset X\) that is SNC at \(\bar{x}=0\) but it is not TNC at the same point. We observe that the class of Banach spaces for which (A) is applicable is a wide class: it contains, for instance, the class of weakly compactly generated Banach spaces. The authors point out that the TNC property is closely related to the {compactly epi-Lipschitzian} property introduced by \textit{J. M. Borwein} and \textit{H. M. Strojwas} [Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl. {9}, 1347--1366 (1985; Zbl 0613.49016)]. These notions play an important role in some aspects of variational analysis and its applications.