On weak * closedness, coerciveness, and inf-sup theorems (Q912353)

Let X and Y be locally convex topological linear spaces, A a subset of the dual space \(X'\) and \(\phi\) a set-valued mapping of A into \(Y'\). Theorem 1 establishes conditions on A, \(\phi\) and Y under which \(\phi[A]\) is weak* closed in \(Y'\); the principal condition on \(\phi\) is of ``coerciveness type''. A recent result of \textit{Ali Khan} and \textit{R. Vohra} [Arch. Math. 48, 328-330 (1987; Zbl 0605.46014)] is obtained as a consequence. Section 2 is concerned with a number of related ``inf-sup theorems'', one of them containing the duality theorem for the Fenchel transform. One of these, due originally to \textit{P. Levine} and \textit{J. Pomerol} [C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 287A, 565-567 (1978; Zbl 0395.49024)], and Theorem 1 are used to give a short proof of a theorem of Lax and Milgram for a linear complementarity problem in Hilbert spaces.