Geometry and nonlinear analysis in Banach spaces (Q5902782)

The monograph under review presents a survey on three topics in the analysis in Banach spaces. Firstly, differentiability properties of the norm are studied, where general assertions, e.g. a characterization of Banach spaces isomorphic to Hilbert spaces, as well as results for classical Banach spaces are provided. Secondly, the authors consider the existence of functions with certain differentiability properties having compact support and of (locally finite) partitions of unity, belonging to corresponding differentiability classes. The approach chosen here is in the spirit of \textit{R. Bonic} and \textit{J. Frampton}, J. Math. Mech. 15, 877-898 (1966; Zbl 0143.352). Besides, a proof is given for the characterization of a superreflexive Banach space by the existence of a nonzero uniformly continuously differentiable real value function with bounded support. Thirdly, approximation results, corresponding to the theorems of Bernstein and Whitney, are presented in a Banach space setting. The aspect of simultaneous approximation is taken into account. Finally, the volume contains an appendix on differentiable manifolds modelled on Banach spaces. In particular, one finds a proof of Bessaga's result that the unit sphere of a Hilbert space H is \(C^{\infty}\)-diffeomorphic with H.