The Brezis-Browder theorem in a general Banach space (Q428830)

The paper presents an extension and refinement to a general Banach space of the (classical) Brezis-Browder Theorem: Suppose that \(X\) is a reflexive space. If \(A:X\rightrightarrows X^\ast\) is a monotone linear relation with closed graph, then \(A\) is maximally monotone if and only if the adjoint \(A^\ast\) is monotone, where \(A^\ast\) is given by \[ \text{graph}\, A^\ast=\{(x^{\ast\ast},x^\ast)\in X^{\ast\ast}\times X^\ast \mid(x^\ast,-x^{\ast\ast})\in(\text{graph}\, A)^\bot\}. \] The main result of the paper, Theorem 1.5, states the following: Let \(X\) be a Banach space and let \(A:X\rightrightarrows X^\ast\) be a monotone linear relation with closed graph. Then \(A\) is maximally monotone of type (D) if and only if \(A^\ast\) is monotone. A key technical step in the proof is to show that if \(A^\ast\) is monotone, then \(A\) is of type (D), i.e., for every \((x^{\ast\ast},x^\ast)\in X^{\ast\ast}\times X^\ast\) with \[ \inf_{(a,a^\ast)\in \text{graph}\, A}\langle a-x^{\ast\ast},a^\ast-x^\ast\rangle \geq 0, \] there exists a bounded net \((a_{\alpha},a_{\alpha}^\ast)_{\alpha\in \Gamma}\) in graph \(A\) such that \((a_{\alpha},a^{\ast}_{\alpha})_{\alpha\in\Gamma}\) weak\(^\ast\times\,\) strong converges to \((x^{\ast\ast},x^\ast)\). In Section 2, several classical facts and auxiliary results from convex analysis are recalled. In Section 3, a key result that will play a fundamental role in the proof of the main theorem is presented (see Proposition 3.1): If \(A:X\rightrightarrows X^\ast\) is a monotone linear relation whose graph is closed and \(A^\ast\) is monotone, then the function \(F:X\times X^\ast\to (-\infty, +\infty]\) defined by \(F(x,x^\ast)=\imath_{\text{graph} A}(x,x^\ast)+\langle x,x^\ast\rangle\) is a representative function of \(A\) and \[ \inf_{(x,x^\ast)\in X\times X^\ast} \left[F_{(v_0,v^\ast_0)}(x,x^\ast)+{1\over 2}\|x\|^2+{1\over 2}\|x^\ast\|^2\right]=0,\quad \text{for all} \;(v_0,v^\ast_0)\in X\times X^\ast. \] (\(F_{(z,z^\ast)}(x,x^\ast)=F(z+x,z^\ast+x^\ast)-(\langle x,z^\ast\rangle +\langle z,x^\ast\rangle +\langle z,z^\ast\rangle)\)). Section 4 is devoted to the proof of the main result, while in Section 5 the authors present their main findings relating monotonicity and adjoint properties of \(A\) and those of its skew part \(A_\circ\), for a monotone linear operator \(A\) with graph closed and domain closed. Indeed, in Theorem 5.5, some equivalences are stated; among them, it is proved that \(A\) is a maximally monotone operator of type (D) if and only if its skew part \(A_\circ\) is maximally monotone of type (D) and \(A^\ast0=A0\).