On uniformly convex functions (Q5919121)

Uniform convexity of the norm of a Banach space is a classical geometrical notion introduced by \textit{J. A. Clarkson} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 40, 396--414 (1936; Zbl 0015.35604)]. It implies reflexivity. A cornerstone renorming result related to this notion is due to \textit{P. Enflo} [Isr. J. Math. 13, 281--288 (1973; Zbl 0259.46012)]: A Banach space is superreflexive if, and only if, it has an equivalent uniformly convex norm. Uniform convexity for extended-valued functions was considered by \textit{E. S. Levitin} and \textit{B. T. Polyak} [Sov. Math., Dokl. 7, 764--767 (1966; Zbl 0161.07002); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 168, 997--1000 (1966)]. A central concept in the present paper is a relaxed condition for (non-necessarily convex) functions, namely \(\varepsilon\)-uniform convexity with respect to a pseudometric \(d\) for some \(\varepsilon>0\) (i.e., there exists \(\delta>0\) such that, whenever \(d(x,y)\ge\varepsilon\), then \(f(\frac{x+y}{2})\le \frac{f(x)+f(y)}{2} -\delta\)). The paper discusses, first, the basic properties of \(\varepsilon\)-uniformly convex and \(\varepsilon\)-uniformly quasiconvex (replace the second term in the previous inequality by \(\max\{f(x),f(y)\}-\delta\)) functions; second, it shows a key reduction-to-convexity argument (Theorem~1.3) that allows for getting back to the convex case; third, a section is devoted to constructing uniformly convex functions from the non-existence of some trees. General properties of \(\varepsilon\)-uniformly convex functions are treated later (even adding conditions like Lipschitzness or homogeneity). It continues by proving an estimation of the approximation by differences of convex functions. Several measures of super weak noncompactness (a notion introduced in [\textit{M.~Raja}, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 439, No.~1, 183--196 (2016; Zbl 1351.46010)]) are proposed. The paper ends by providing a proof of Enflo's theorem quoted above based on the new ideas introduced. The techniques used here are of interest beyond the last application. It is worth to mention Theorem~1.4: Let \(f\) be a convex proper lowersemicontinuous \(\varepsilon\)-uniformly convex extended-valued function on a Banach space \((X,{\|\cdot\|})\). Then there exists an equivalent norm \({|||\cdot |||}\) on \(X\) such that the function \(x\mapsto ||| x|||^2\) is \(\varepsilon'\)-uniformly convex for every \(\varepsilon'>\varepsilon\) on the subsets of \(\mathrm{dom}(f)\) where \(f\) is bounded above. Moreover, \({|||\cdot |||}\) can be taken as close to \({\|\cdot\|}\) as we wish.