Periodic orbits for multivalued maps with continuous margins of intervals (Q526133)

The paper deals with combinatorial aspects of multivalued maps, namely, the coexistence of periods for connected multivalued maps with continuous margins of intervals. For the sake of completeness, let us recall the notion of a connected-multivalued map with continuous margins. Consider a bounded interval \(I\) of the real line containing more than one point; following the notation of the authors, let \(\mathcal{L}(I)\) be the family of nonempty connected subsets of \(I\); we then say that \(F:I\rightarrow \mathcal{L}(I)\) is a connected-multivalued map on \(I\). For this \(F\) there exist unique (single-valued) maps \(\alpha:I\rightarrow \overline{I}\) and \(\beta:I\rightarrow \overline{I}\) such that \(\alpha(x)\leq \beta(x)\) and \((\alpha(x),\beta(x))\subset F(x)\subset [\alpha(x),\beta(x)]\) for each \(x\in I\). We say that \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are the left endpoint and right endpoint functions corresponding to \(F\). Finally, if both \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are continuous maps, we say that \(F:I\rightarrow \mathcal{L}(I)\) is a multivalued map with continuous margins. The authors prove that the well-known Sharkovsky theorem, cf. [\textit{A. N. Sharkovskij}, Ukr. Mat. Zh. 16, 61--71 (1964; Zbl 0122.17504)], remains true for this class of multivalued maps \(F:I\rightarrow \mathcal{L}(I)\) with continuous margins. It is interesting to mention that the result is inspired by the statements of the main results in [\textit{J. Andres} et al., Set-Valued Anal. 10, No. 1, 1--14 (2002; Zbl 1082.37048)] and [\textit{J. Andres} and \textit{K. Pastor}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 133, No. 2, 449--453 (2005; Zbl 1063.34030)]. Moreover, the compactness of \(F(x)\) and the upper-semicontinuity of \(F\) are not necessary to establish the proof, whose nature is merely combinatorial.