Properties of suns in the spaces \(L^1\) and \(C(Q)\) (Q2239366)

Let \(X\) be a normed linear space with dual \(X^*\) and let \(B\, (S), B^*\, (S^*)\) be the unit balls (unit spheres) of the spaces \(X\) and \(X^*\), respectively. A monotone path is a continuous mapping \(k:[0,1]\to X\) such that \(\varphi\circ k\) is a monotone function for every \(\varphi \in\mathrm{ext}\, S^*\) (the set of extreme points of \(S^*\)). A subset \(M\) of a normed space \(X\) is called linearly monotone connected if any two points in \(M\) can be joined by a monotone path contained in \(M\). This is a notion lying between linear connectedness and convexity. A point \(x\in X\setminus M\) is called a solar (strictly solar) point of \(M\) if \(P_M(x)\ne\emptyset\) and \(y\in P_M((1-\lambda)x+\lambda y)\) for some \(y\in P_M(x)\) (resp. for all \(y\in P_M(x)\)), where \(P_M\) denotes the (set-valued) metric projection on \(M\). The set \(M\) is called a sun (strict sun) if every point in \(X\setminus M\) is a solar (strict solar) point for \(M\). For \(x,y\in M\) let \(\mathbf{m}(x,y)\) be the intersection of all closed balls containing the points \(x,y\) and let \[[\![x,y]\!]=\{z\in X:\min\{\varphi(x),\varphi(y)\}\le\varphi(z)\le\max\{\varphi(x),\varphi(y)\},\;\forall \varphi\in\mathrm{ext}\, S^*\}\,.\] The set \(M\) is called Menger connected (strongly Menger connected) if \(M\,\cap\, \mathbf{m}(x,y)\ne\{x,y\}\) (resp. \( M\,\cap \,[\![x,y]\!]\ne\{x,y\}\)), for all distinct points \(x,y\in M\). Since \([\![x,y]\!]\subset \mathbf{m}(x,y)\), the strong Menger connectedness implies ordinary Menger connectedness. If the space \(X\) is separable, then these notions coincide. It is unknown whether this holds or not in non-separable normed spaces. These notions are involved in the study of convexity of Chebyshev set, see [\textit{A. R. Alimov} and \textit{I. G. Tsar'kov}, Russ. Math. Surv. 71, No. 1, 1--77 (2016; Zbl 1350.41031); translation from Usp. Mat. Nauk 71, No. 1, 3--84 (2016)]. The present paper is concerned with suns in the classical spaces \(L^1\) and \(C(Q)\). One shows that every boundedly compact sun in \(L^1[0,1]\) is convex and, as the author remarks, the result holds in the space \(L^1(\mu)\) for any non-atomic measure \(\mu\). Recall that a set \(K\) is called boundedly compact if its intersection with every closed ball is compact. If \(K\) is a sun in \(L^1[0,1]\) such that there exists a closed ball \(B(x_0,r_0)\) with \(x_0\in K\) such that \(K\cap B(x_0,r_0)\) is compact, then \(K\) is a boundedly compact convex set (Theorem 2). In the space \(C(Q)\), where \(Q\) is a Hausdorff compact topological space, every boundedly weakly compact sun is strongly Menger connected, and so monotone path connected (Theorem 4). The assertion concerning the monotone path connectedness follows by a result of [\textit{A. R. Alimov}, Izv. Math. 78, No. 4, 641--655 (2014; Zbl 1303.41018); translation from Izv. Ross. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Mat. 78, No. 4, (2014)]: every boundedly weakly compact Menger connected subset of \(C(Q)\) is monotone path connected.