Approximation by smooth functions with no critical points on separable Banach spaces (Q859637)

A version of the Morse--Sard theorem useful for many applications states that continuous functions on finite-dimensional spaces can be uniformly approximated by smooth maps whose set of critical values has empty interior. The strongest version of this approximate Morse-Sard theorem in general infinite-dimensional separable Banach spaces is proved in the present paper; it goes as follows. {For an infinite-dimensional separable Banach space \(X\), the following are equivalent. (i) \(X^*\) is separable. (ii) For every real continuous function \(f\) on \(X\) and for every continuous function \(\varepsilon:X\to (0,\infty)\), there exists a \(C^1\)-smooth real function \(g\) on \(X\) such that \(| f(x)-g(x)| \leq\varepsilon(x)\) for every \(x\in X\), and \(g\) has no critical points} (Corollary~1.3). The main result (Theorem~1.1) states that {for an infinite-dimensional separable Banach space with a LUR and \(C^p\)-smooth norm (\(p\in\mathbb{N}\cup\{ \infty \})\), (ii) above holds with \(g\) being also \(C^p\)-smooth}. Among some other interesting consequences of this result, we mention, on the one hand, a nonlinear Hahn--Banach theorem, precisely, the separation of two disjoint closed subsets of \(X\) by a 1-codimensional \(C^p\)-smooth submanifold and, on the other hand, the approximation of closed subsets of \(X\) by \(C^p\)-smooth open subsets. The paper ends with two open problems. The first one concerns the possibility to uniformly approximate every continuous real function on a separable Hilbert space by real-analytic smooth functions with no critical points, and the second the possibility to renorm a non-reflexive separable Banach space \(X\) in such a way that \(\{ f\in X^*; f \text{ does not attain the norm} \}\cup\{ 0 \}\) contains a dense subspace of \(X^*\). We mention here that \textit{M.\,Acosta} and the reviewer [Math.\ Z.\ 256, No.\,2, 295--300 (2007; Zbl 1126.46004), reviewed further above] solved in the positive the related problem (posed by I.\,Namioka) of renorming a non-reflexive Banach space in such a way that the set of norm-attaining functionals has an empty interior for a wide class of spaces including the weakly compactly generated (and so the separable) ones.