The existence of a fixed point for the sum of two monotone operators (Q1007080)

The author gives sufficient conditions for the existence of an attractive fixed point of the sum \(T=A+H\) of two monotone operators in a cone in a Banach space. \(A\) is assumed to be \(\alpha\)-concave (\(A(tx)\geq t^\alpha Ax\) for all \(t\in (\eta,1)\), for some \(\alpha,\eta\in (0,1)\)), but \(H\) is only subhomogeneous (\(H(tx)\geq tHx\) for all \(t\in (\eta,1)\)). It is known that a subhomogeneous operator can have no fixed points. \textit{R.\,D.\thinspace Nussbaum} in [``Hilbert's projective metric and iterated nonlinear maps'' (Mem.\ Am.\ Math.\ Soc.\ 391) (1988; Zbl 0666.47028)] presented a sufficient condition for the existence of a solution of the problem in terms of eigenvectors. In the present paper, the following condition is assumed: there is an \(x_0\in P\) such that \(Ax_0\in C_{x_0}\) and \(Hx_0\in C_{x_0}\), and \(\lambda_m(t)=\sup_{x\in C_{x_0}}\lambda(t,x)<1\), where \(C_{x_0}\) is a component in \(P\) containing \(x_0\), and \(\lambda(t,x):(\eta,1)\times C_{x_0}\to (\alpha,1)\) is a function satisfying \[ T(tx)\geq t^{\lambda(t,x)}Tx \text{ for all } t\in (\eta,1). \] In the proof of the main Theorem 3.1, the author checks that the map \(\lambda(t,x)\) is well defined for every \((t,x)\). Under the above assumptions, the existence of a fixed point \(x_*=Tx_*\) is proved with \(T^nx_0\to x_*\). A more verifiable condition than the above one is given in Theorem 3.4. Two applications to difference equations and integral equations, respectively, are presented as illustrations in the last section.