Uniform approximation of semibounded functions (Q1085361)

Consider the infinite set S with the given subsets \(S_+\) and \(S_-\) having the property that \(S_+\cup S_-=S\). The real valued function f is called semibounded on S if it is upper bounded on \(S_+\) and lower bounded on \(S_-\). One denotes \(\| f| =\max \{\| f|_+\cdot \| f|_-\}\) where \(\| f|_+=\sup_{s\in S_+}f(s).\| f|_-=-\inf_{s\in S_-}f(s).\) If \({\mathcal F}(S)\) denotes the set of semibounded functions on S, then \({\mathcal B}(S)={\mathcal F}(S)\cap (-{\mathcal F}(S))\) is obviously the set of bounded functions on S. Let P be a finite dimensional subspace of \({\mathcal B}(S)\) and let u be a prescribed linear functional on P. The author investigates the value \(\nu (f,u)=\inf_{p\in P}\{\| p+f| -u(p)\}\) and characterizes the set of elements p in P which realize the above infimum.