Quasi uniform convexity -- revisited (Q2406899)

For a Banach space, \(X\) denote by \(\mathcal{BC}(X)\) the family of all nonempty closed bounded subsets of \(X\). For \(A\in \mathcal{BC}(X)\), \(x\in X\) and \(r>0\), put \(r(A,x)=\sup_{a\in A}\|x-a\|\), \(r(A)=\inf_{x\in X}r(A,x)\), \(Z_r(A)=\{x\in X: r(A,x)\leq r\}\), and \(Z(A)=\{x\in X : r(A,x)=r(A)\}\). The number \(r(A)\) is called the Chebyshev radius of \(A\) and \(Z(A)\) is the set of Chebyshev centers. One introduces similar notions for bounded sequences in \(X\), called asymptotic radius and asymptotic centers, denoted by \(r(a_n)\), \(Z_r(a_n)\) and \(Z(a_n)\), respectively, for any bounded sequence \((a_n)\). The existence of Chebyshev centers (i.e., the nonemptiness of \(Z(A)\)) and the continuity properties of the mappings \(r\mapsto r(A)\) and \(A\mapsto Z(A)\) are important problems in approximation theory. The continuity involving sets in \(\mathcal{BC}(X)\) is always understood with respect to the Pompeiu-Hausdorff metric \(h\). We say that \(X\) admits Chebyshev centers if \(Z(A)\neq\emptyset\) for every \(A\in \mathcal{BC}(X)\). It is known that, if \(X\) is a dual space (e.g., \(L_1[0,1]\)), then \(X\) admits Chebyshev centers, and this holds for all Banach spaces which are norm-one complemented in their biduals. However, there are Banach spaces which admit Chebyshev centers but are not norm-one complemented in their biduals, as, e.g., \(c_0, c, C[0,1]\). \textit{J. R. Calder} et al. [Can. J. Math. 25, 986--999 (1973; Zbl 0247.46035)] introduced a sufficient condition (satisfied by the mentioned spaces) for a Banach space \(X\) to admit Chebyshev centers. Later, this property was called quasi-uniform convexity ((QUC) for short). A similar sufficient condition was introduced by \textit{L. Pevac} [Publ. Inst. Math., Nouv. Sér. 45(59), 109--112 (1989; Zbl 0695.41015)] (denoted here by (Pquc)). The author shows that (Pquc) implies (QUC), so that Pevac's results follow from those based on (QUC). The author shows that this property is characteristic for the existence of Chebyshev centers. In Theorem 3.10 (the main result of the paper) he proves the equivalence of (QUC) with several properties of a Banach space \(X\) involving Chebyshev centers, as: {\parindent=7mm \begin{itemize}\item[(iii)] \(X\) admits Chebyshev centers and the mapping \(r\mapsto Z_r(A)\) is continuous from \([r(A),\infty)\) to \((\mathcal{BC}(X),h)\); \item[(iv)] for every (some) \(r_0>0\), \(Z_{r_0}(\cdot)\) takes values in \(\mathcal{BC}(X)\) and is uniformly continuous on \(\{A\in \mathcal{BC}(X) : r(A)\leq r_0\}\). \end{itemize}} If \(X\) is separable, then these properties are further equivalent to the existence of asymptotic centers of bounded sequences and the continuity of the mapping \(r\mapsto Z_r(a_n).\) If a Banach space \(X\) has property (QUC), then the spaces \(C_b(T;X)\) (bounded continuous functions on a topological space \(T\)), \(c_0(\Gamma;X)\) and \(\ell_\infty(\Gamma;X)\) also have the property (QUC) (Theorem 4.8).