Approximate convexity and submonotonicity. (Q1426084)

Given a Banach space \(X\), a function \(f:X\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\cup\{+\infty\}\) is called approximately convex at \(x_{0}\in X\) [\textit{H. V. Ngai}, \textit{D. T. Luc} and \textit{M. Théra}, J. Nonlinear Convex Anal. 1, No. 2, 155--176 (2000; Zbl 1033.49029)] if for every \(\varepsilon>0\) there exists \(\delta>0\) such that for all \(x,y\in B(x_{0},\delta)\) and \(t\in(0,1)\), \(f\left( tx+(1-t)y\right) \leq tf(x)+(1-t)f(y)+\varepsilon t(1-t)\left\| x-y\right\| \). In this paper it is shown that a locally Lipschitz function \(f\) is approximately convex at \(x_{0}\) if and only if its Clarke subdifferential \(\partial f\) is submonotone at \(x_{0}\) (a multimap \(T:X\rightarrow2^{X^{\ast}}\) is called submonotone at \(x_{0}\) if for all \(\varepsilon>0\) there exists \(\delta>0\) such that \(\left\langle x_{1}^{\ast }-x_{2}^{\ast}-x_{1}-x_{2}\right\rangle \geq-\varepsilon\left\| x_{1} -x_{2}\right\| \) for all \(x_{i}\in B(x_{0},\delta)\) and \(x_{i}^{\ast}\in T(x_{i})\), \(i=1,2\)). As a result, in finite-dimensional spaces, it is shown that a locally Lipschitz function is approximately convex if and only if it is lower \(C^{1}\) in the sense of \textit{J. E. Spingarn} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 264, 77--89 (1981; Zbl 0465.26008)]. Further, it is shown that in Asplund spaces every regular function is generically approximately convex (though it may fail to be approximately convex, even for \(X=\mathbb{R}^{2}\)). In the last section of the paper, a notion of directionally approximately convex function is intoduced; it is shown that a multimap is maximal cyclically submonotone if and only if it is the Clarke subdifferential of a directionally approximately convex function.