Existence of generalized equilibria (Q5935775)

Given a nonempty, compact subset \(M\) of \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\), let \(N_{M}(x)\), \(x\in M\), be the Clarke normal cone at \(x\). Consider the following assertion (\(GE;N_{M}\)): For every u.s.c. correspondence \(F\) from \(M\) to \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) with nonempty, convex, compact values, there exists \(x^{\ast}\in M\) such that \(0\in F\left( x^{\ast}\right) -N_{M}\left( x^{\ast}\right) \) (such an \(x^{\ast}\) is called a generalized equilibrium of \(F\)). In this paper, the class of ``proximally nondegenerate'' subsets of \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) is introduced. It is shown that each element of this class has a finite number of connected components \(\left( M^{i}\right) _{i\in I}\) such that every \(M^{i}\) has a well-defined Euler characteristic \(\chi\left( M^{i}\right) \). Further, if \(\chi\left( M^{i}\right) \neq 0\) for some \(i\in I\), then (\(GE;N_{M}\)) holds. This result generalizes several previously known results where \(M\) is assumed to be convex or epi-Lipschitzian (the reader should also consult the more recent paper [\textit{A. Ćwiszewski} and \textit{W. Kryszewski}, Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl. 48 A, 707-746 (2002; Zbl 1030.49021)] where a similar result is shown in infinite dimensions for a broader class of sets). A similar result is obtained with another notion of normal cone which is smaller than the Clarke normal cone.