Isometric approximation (Q5951507)

The paper deals with \(\varepsilon\)-nearisometries \(f :A\to l_2\) where \(A\subset l_2\). \(f\) is called an \(\varepsilon\)-nearisometry if \[ |x-y|-\varepsilon\leq|f(x)-f(y)|\leq |x-y|+\varepsilon\text{ for all }x,y \in A. \] A classical theorem of Hyers and Ulam states that then there is an isometry \(S: l_2\to l_2\) with \(|S(x)-f(x)|\leq c\varepsilon\) for all \(x\in l_2\), for some constant \(c> 0\), provided that \(A=l_2\) and \(f\) is surjective. The authors of the present paper show that the estimate for the distance between \(f\) and \(S\) can be considerably improved if \(A\) is a bounded subset of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) (which is identified with the linear span of the first \(n\) elements of an orthonormal system of \(l_2\)). In fact, let \(A\subset l_2\) be bounded with diameter \(d(A)\) and let \(f : A \to l_2\) be an \(\varepsilon\cdot d(A)\)-nearisometry for some \(\varepsilon \leq 1\). Then there is a surjective isometry \(S :l_2\to l_2\) satisfying \[ \sup_{x\in A} |f(x) - S(x)|\leq c\sqrt{\varepsilon} d(A) \] where \(c\) depends only on \(n\). Moreover, \(f\) has an extension to a \(\delta\)-nearisometry \(g :l_2\to l_2\) with \(\delta = c\sqrt{\varepsilon} d(A)\). In addition, the authors show that the bound \(c\sqrt{\varepsilon} d(A)\) is sharp by proving that, for any \(0 <\varepsilon < 1/4\), there is an \(\varepsilon\)-nearisometry \(f\) on a finite set \(A\subset \mathbb{R}\) with \(d(A) = 1\) such that any isometry \(S : \mathbb{R}\to l_2\) satisfies \(\sup_{x\in A} |S(x) - f(x)|\geq \sqrt{\varepsilon}/2\). After the discussion of variants of the main theorem for special \(A\), the paper concludes with an analogous result concerning the approximation of \(s\)-nearsymmetric functions \(f :A\to l_2\) by similarities.