Monotone operators representable by l.s.c. convex functions (Q1781008)

The authors generalize a theorem due to \textit{S. Fitzpatrick} [Proc. Cent. Math. Anal. Aust. Natl. Univ. 20, 59--65 (1988; Zbl 0669.47029)], who gave a representation for maximal monotone operators by convex functions. They obtain several characterizations for monotone operators in Banach spaces through convex lower semicontinuous functions and monotone polar sets. Monotone representable sets are studied and in the finite-dimensional case it is proved that these sets are the intersections of arbitrary families of maximal monotone sets. Some properties of pre-maximal monotone sets (which have unique maximal monotone extensions) are also presented.