Conic functions on metric spaces and their application (Q2484635)

For a metric space \((M,d)\), a function \(f:M\rightarrow [ 0,\infty )\) is called a conic function if there exist \(a\in M\), \(r>0\), and \(k\geq 0\) such that \[ f(x)=\begin{cases} k(r-d(x,a)),&\text{if }d(x,a)\leq r \\ 0,&\text{if }d(x,a)>r \end{cases}. \] \ In this case, the conic function \(f\) is denoted \(h_{(a,r,k)}\). \ A function \(f:M\rightarrow [ 0,\infty )\) is called conically representable if \(f\) is the supremum of a set \(H\) of conic functions and for each \(a\in M\) there exists \(h=h_{(a,r,k)}\in H\) with \(f(a)=h(a).\) The authors show that every non-negative Lipschitz function is conically representable. \ They also give examples of a continuous function which is not conically representable, and a conically representable function which is not continuous. The authors call a non-negative real-valued function \(f\) pointwise Lipschitz if for every \(a\in M\), there exist \(L_{a}\geq 0\) and \( r_{a}>0\) such that \(\left| f(x)-f(a)\right| \leq L_{a}d(x,a)\) for \( d(x,a)\leq r_{a}\). \ They say a function \(f:M\rightarrow [ 0,\infty )\) is finitely conically approximable if for every \(\epsilon >0\) there exists a finite family \(H=\left\{ h_{1},h_{2},\dots,h_{n}\right\} \) of conic functions such that \(0\leq f(x)-(\sup H)(x)<\epsilon \), for all \(x\in M\). \ They prove that a metric space \((M,d)\) is compact if and only if every pointwise Lipschitz function on \(M\) is finitely conically approximable.