Scalar derivatives in Hilbert spaces (Q2499039)

The author provides interesting results regarding the (lower and upper) scalar derivatives of mappings and pairs of mappings on Hilbert spaces. These notions are introduced by (lower and upper) limits of the scalar products \[ {\langle f(x)- f(x^0), x- x^0\rangle\over\| x- x^0\|^p}\quad\text{and}\quad {\langle f(x)- f(x^0), g(x)- g(x^0)\rangle\over\| x- x^0\|^p} \] for \(x\to x^0\) from special directions. It is shown that scalar differentiability (i.e., the existence of the limits for \(p= 2\)) is very restrictive. Upper and lower scalar derivatives, however, can be used for the characterization of monotone and strictly monotone mappings. Many computational formulas are given which show, e.g., that the (lower and upper) scalar derivatives of a pair of Fréchet differentiable mappings is equal to the (lower and upper) scalar derivatives of the pair of their differentials. Similar results are provided regarding the (lower and upper) scalar derivatives of pairs of positively homogeneous mappings. At the end of the paper, the author gives an application of the results to nonlinear complementarity problems.