Generic Hahn-Banach results (Q2252061)

Let \(X\) be a reflexive real Banach space and \(f:X\to\mathbb R\cup\{\infty\}\) a proper lower semi-continuous convex function -- the set of these functions is denoted by \(\Gamma_0(X)\). Consider also a closed subspace \(L\) of \(X\) such that \(L\cap \mathrm{dom} (f)\neq \emptyset\). Let \(\mathcal A(f,X)=\{(x^*,r)\in X^*\times \mathbb R : \langle x^*,x\rangle -r \leq f(x),\, \forall x\in X\} \) denote the set of all affine functions on \(X\) dominated by \(f\). The set \(\mathcal A(f,L)\) is defined accordingly. Denote by \(\mathcal N(f,L)\) the set of all functions in \(\mathcal A(f,L)\) which do not have an extension in \(\mathcal A(f,X)\). The paper is concerned with the Baire category properties of the set \(\mathcal N(f,L)\). It is shown that \(\mathcal A(f,L)\) is a convex and closed (hence complete) subset of \(L^*\times \mathbb R\), and \(\mathcal A(f,L)\setminus \mathcal N(f,L)\) is convex and dense in \(\mathcal A(f,L)\). If \(X\) is the Euclidean space \(\mathbb R^n\), then \(\mathcal N(f,L)\) is of first Baire category in \(\mathcal A(f,L)\). The main result of the paper, Theorem 4.3, asserts that, if \(X\) is an infinite-dimensional reflexive Banach space, then there exists a function \(f\in \Gamma_0(X)\) and a closed subspace \(L\) of \(X\) with \(L\cap \mathrm{dom} (f)\neq \emptyset\) such that \(\mathcal N(f,L)\) is a residual subset of \(\mathcal A(f,L)\). The proof is based on the remark that any infinite-dimensional reflexive Banach space with Schauder basis contains two closed subspaces \(L_1,L_2\) such that \(L_1+L_2\) is both dense and of first Baire category in \(X\).