A characterization of Smyth complete quasi-metric spaces via Caristi's fixed point theorem (Q288181)

From the abstract: `We obtain a quasi-metric generalization of Caristi's fixed point theorem for a kind of complete quasi-metric spaces. With the help of a suitable modification of its proof, we deduce a characterization of Smyth complete quasi-metric spaces which provides a quasi-metric generalization of the well-known characterization of metric completeness due to Kirk.' It is known that Smyth complete quasi-metric spaces are complete, and complete quasi-metric spaces are sequentially complete. Therefore, the discussion provided by the authors is valuable. They prove that: every \(d\)-Caristi mapping on a complete quasi metric space has a fixed point (\(d\) is a quasi-metric), and compare this result with \textit{S. Cobzaş}'s result [Topology Appl. 158, No. 8, 1073--1084 (2011; Zbl 1217.54026)] where a space was only sequentially complete but \(T_1\). Moreover, some examples comparing \(d\)-Caristi and \(d^s\)-Caristi mappings are given, where \(d^s\) is a metric given by \(d^s(x,y)=\max\{d(x,y),d(y,x)\}\). The result quoted above is not a full characterization of sequential completeness. The authors show that the full characterization is possible for Smyth complete spaces via \(d^s\)-Caristi mappings: A quasi-metric space \((X,d)\) is Smyth complete if and only if every \(d^s\)-Caristi mapping on \((X,d)\) has a fixed point in \(X\). The authors illustrate the abstract results in the complexity space of functions \(f:\{1,2,\ldots\}\to (0,\infty]\) with \(\sum_{n=1}^\infty 2^{-n}\frac{1}{f(n)} <\infty\). Several recurrence equations (Hanoi, Largetwo and Quicksort) are checked to have a solution.