Distance function associated to a prox-regular set

Let \(S\) be a closed subset of a Hilbert space H. The (possibly empty and/or multivalued) metric projection onto \(S\) is \(\mathrm{Proj}_S(x):=\{ y\in S : \|y-x\| = d_S(x)\}\), \(d_S(x)\) being the distance from \(x\in H\) to \(S\). The \(r\)-prox-regularity of \(S\) is the requirement that \(\mathrm{Proj}_S(x)\) is nonempty and is a singleton in the open \(r\)-neighborhood of \(S\), i.e., on \(U_r:=\{x\in H : d_S(x) < r\}\). All convex sets are \(r\)-prox-regular for every \(r\) and all sets with a \(\mathcal{C}^{1,1}\) boundary are \(r\)-prox-regular, with \(r\) depending on the Lipschitz constant of the external unit normal to \(S\). Several characterizations of \(r\)-prox-regularity are known, in terms, for example, of a (hypo)monotonicity of the normal cone or in terms of the \(\mathcal{C}^{1,1}\)-regularity of the square distance on \(U_r\). The contribution of the present paper is establishing several new characterizations of \(r\)-prox-regularity involving points outside the set. In particular, it is proved that \(S\) is \(r\)-prox-regular if and only if \(d_S\) is locally semiconvex in \(U_r\), i.e. adding a (locally fixed) quadratic term makes \(d_S\) convex. Another example of characterizations that are proved here is the following: \(S\) is \(r\)-prox-regular if and only if for all \(x', x \in U_r\) with \(d_S(x' ) \le d_S (x)\) and for all \(\xi \in \partial d_S (x)\), one has \(\langle \xi, x' - x\rangle \le \frac{1}{2(r - d_S (x ))}\| x' - x\|^2\).

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