Sequential normal compactness versus topological normal compactness in variational analysis. (Q1400278)

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.