Maximality of the sum of a maximally monotone linear relation and a maximally monotone operator (Q2436682)

Let \(X\) be a real Banach space and \(X^*\) denote the continuous dual such that \((X,X^*)\) forms a dual pair. Let \(A\) be a set valued operator from \(X\) into \(X^*\) (meaning that \(Ax \subseteq X^*\) for all \(x \in X\)). Let \(\mathrm{gra}~ A=\{(x,x^*) \in X \times X^*:x^* \in Ax\}\) be the graph of \(A\). \(A\) is said to be monotone if \(\langle x-y,x^*-y^*\rangle \geq 0\) for all \((x,x^*) \in \mathrm{gra}~ A\) and for all \((y,y^*) \in \mathrm{gra}~ A\). A monotone \(A\) is said to be maximally monotone if \(A\) has no proper monotone extension in the sense of graph inclusion. Finally, \(A\) is called a linear relation if \(\mathrm{gra}~A\) is a subspace. Let \(A,B\) be maximally monotone operators. Then the sum \(A+B\) is monotone. Rockafellar's sum theorem states that, if \(X\) is a reflexive space, \(A,B\) are maximally monotone and \(\mathrm{dom}~A \cap \mathrm{int}~\mathrm{dom}~B\) is nonempty, then \(A+B\) is maximally monotone. Here, \(\mathrm{dom}~A=\{x \in X: Ax \neq \emptyset\}\) is the domain of \(A\) and \( \mathrm{int}~C\) denotes the topological interior of \(C\). One of the most important problems in monotone operator theory called the sum problem concerns the maximal monotonicity of the sum of two maximally monotone operators in general Banach spaces. In this interesting article, the authors show that if \(A\) is a maximally monotone linear relation, \(B\) is maximally monotone and \(\mathrm{dom}~A \cap \mathrm{int}~\mathrm{dom}~B\) is nonempty, then \(A+B\) is maximally monotone.