Chebyshev sets with piecewise continuous metric projection (Q6114322)

For a nonempty subset \(Z\) of a normed space \((X,\|\cdot\|)\) and \(x\in X\), denote by \(\rho(x,Z)\) the distance from \(x\) to \(Z,\, \rho(x,Z)=\inf\{\|x-z\|: z\in Z\}\), and by \(P_Zx\) the set of all nearest points to \(x\) in \(Z\) (i.e., those points \(z\in Z\) for which \(\|x-z\|=\rho(x,Z)\)). The set \(Z\) is called proximinal (Chebyshev) if \(P_Zx\ne\emptyset\) (resp. \(P_Zx\) is a singleton) for every \(x\in X\). The operator \(P_Z:X\to 2^Z\) is called the metric projection. The set \(Z\) is called approximatively compact if for every \(x\in X\), every sequence \((z_n)\) in \(Z\) such that \(\|x-z_n\|\to\rho(x,Z)\), contains a subsequence converging to some \(z\in Z\). Some local solarity properties of subsets of uniformly convex normed spaces are discussed in Section 2. An element \(x_0\in X\setminus Z\) is called a local solarity point for \(M\) if \(P_Mx_0\ne\emptyset\) and there exists a neighborhood \(O(x_0)\) of \(x_0\) and a point \(y_0\in P_Mx_0\) such that \(y_0\in P_Mx\) for all \(x\in O(x_0)\cap l_{y_0}\), where \(l_{y_0}\) is the ray from \(y_0\) through \(x_0.\) If this holds for all \(x\in l_{y_0}\), then \(x_0\) is called a solarity point. Suppose that \(M\) is a nonempty subset of \(X\) that can be written as the union of an at most countable family of nonempty sets \(M_j,\, j\in J\). Then \(P_Mx=\bigcup \{P_{M_j}x : \rho(x,M)=\rho(x,M_j),\, j\in J\}\) and the metric projection is called piecewise continuous if \(P_{M_j}\) is continuous for every \(j\in J\). It is shown that if the space \(X\) is uniformly convex, the subset \(M\) of \(X\) is Chebyshev and \(P_M\) is piecewise continuous, then \(P_M\) is continuous (Theorem 3). If \(X\) is a uniformly convex Banach space, then, under the same hypotheses on \(M\), it follows that \(M\) is a Chebyshev sun. If, in addition, \(X\) is smooth, then \(M\) is convex (Corollary 3). The same conclusions hold if \(M\) is the union of an at most countable family of approximatively compact sets (Corollary 4). As examples, one considers, best approximation by generalized fractions and by ridge functions.