Smooth approximation of convex functions in Banach spaces (Q819632)

Let \(X\) be a Banach space, \(p:X\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\cup\{+\infty\}\) a lower semicontinuous sublinear function and \(C^{\ast}\) be the image of the subdifferential mapping \(\partial p\). The main result of the paper (Theorem 2.1) is to prove that if \(C^{\ast}\) has the RNP, then there exists a sequence \(\{p_{n}\}\) of continuous sublinear functions which are locally affine at all points of a dense open subset of \(X\) and such that \(p_{n}(x)\nearrow p(x)\) for all \(x\in X.\) Using this result, inf-convolution and a standard trigonal process it is shown that in every Asplund space \(X\), each lower semicontinuous convex function \(f:X\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\cup\{+\infty\}\) can be point-wise approximated by an increasing sequence of locally Lipschitz convex functions that are locally affine (thus, \(C^{\infty}\)) at all points of an open dense set. The analogous approximation result is proved for \(w^{\ast}\)-lower semicontinuous convex continuous functions defined on a dual space \(X^{\ast}\) which is \(w^{\ast}\)-Asplund.