Fixed-point property

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A mathematical object X has the fixed-point property if every suitably well-behaved mapping from X to itself has a fixed point. The term is most commonly used to describe topological spaces on which every continuous mapping has a fixed point. But another use is in order theory, where a partially ordered set P is said to have the fixed point property if every increasing function on P has a fixed point.

Contents

Definition

Let A be an object in the concrete category C. Then A has the fixed-point property if every morphism (i.e., every function) has a fixed point.

The most common usage is when C=Top is the category of topological spaces. Then a topological space X has the fixed-point property if every continuous map has a fixed point.

Examples

Singletons

In the category of sets, the objects with the fixed-point property are precisely the singletons.

The closed interval

The closed interval [0,1] has the fixed point property: Let f: [0,1] → [0,1] be a continuous mapping. If f(0) = 0 or f(1) = 1, then our mapping has a fixed point at 0 or 1. If not, then f(0) > 0 and f(1) − 1 < 0. Thus the function g(x) = f(x) − x is a continuous real valued function which is positive at x = 0 and negative at x = 1. By the intermediate value theorem, there is some point x0 with g(x0) = 0, which is to say that f(x0) − x0 = 0, and so x0 is a fixed point.

The open interval does not have the fixed-point property. The mapping f(x) = x2 has no fixed point on the interval (0,1).

The closed disc

The closed interval is a special case of the closed disc, which in any finite dimension has the fixed-point property by the Brouwer fixed-point theorem.

Topology

A retract A of a space X with the fixed-point property also has the fixed-point property. This is because if is a retraction and is any continuous function, then the composition (where is inclusion) has a fixed point. That is, there is such that . Since we have that and therefore

A topological space has the fixed-point property if and only if its identity map is universal.

A product of spaces with the fixed-point property in general fails to have the fixed-point property even if one of the spaces is the closed real interval.

The FPP is a topological invariant, i.e. is preserved by any homeomorphism. The FPP is also preserved by any retraction.

According to Brouwer fixed point theorem every compact and convex subset of a Euclidean space has the FPP. More generally, according to the Schauder-Tychonoff fixed point theorem every compact and convex subset of a locally convex topological vector space has the FPP. Compactness alone does not imply the FPP and convexity is not even a topological property so it makes sense to ask how to topologically characterize the FPP. In 1932 Borsuk asked whether compactness together with contractibility could be a sufficient condition for the FPP to hold. The problem was open for 20 years until the conjecture was disproved by Kinoshita who found an example of a compact contractible space without the FPP. [1]

Related Research Articles

Brouwer's fixed-point theorem is a fixed-point theorem in topology, named after L. E. J. (Bertus) Brouwer. It states that for any continuous function mapping a nonempty compact convex set to itself there is a point such that . The simplest forms of Brouwer's theorem are for continuous functions from a closed interval in the real numbers to itself or from a closed disk to itself. A more general form than the latter is for continuous functions from a nonempty convex compact subset of Euclidean space to itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compact space</span> Type of mathematical space

In mathematics, specifically general topology, compactness is a property that seeks to generalize the notion of a closed and bounded subset of Euclidean space. The idea is that a compact space has no "punctures" or "missing endpoints", i.e., it includes all limiting values of points. For example, the open interval (0,1) would not be compact because it excludes the limiting values of 0 and 1, whereas the closed interval [0,1] would be compact. Similarly, the space of rational numbers is not compact, because it has infinitely many "punctures" corresponding to the irrational numbers, and the space of real numbers is not compact either, because it excludes the two limiting values and Failed to parse : -\infty . However, the extended real number linewould be compact, since it contains both infinities. There are many ways to make this heuristic notion precise. These ways usually agree in a metric space, but may not be equivalent in other topological spaces.

In mathematical analysis, a metric space M is called complete if every Cauchy sequence of points in M has a limit that is also in M.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lipschitz continuity</span> Strong form of uniform continuity

In mathematical analysis, Lipschitz continuity, named after German mathematician Rudolf Lipschitz, is a strong form of uniform continuity for functions. Intuitively, a Lipschitz continuous function is limited in how fast it can change: there exists a real number such that, for every pair of points on the graph of this function, the absolute value of the slope of the line connecting them is not greater than this real number; the smallest such bound is called the Lipschitz constant of the function. For instance, every function that is defined on an interval and has bounded first derivative is Lipschitz continuous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fixed point (mathematics)</span> Element mapped to itself by a mathematical function

In mathematics, a fixed point, also known as an invariant point, is a value that does not change under a given transformation. Specifically for functions, a fixed point is an element that is mapped to itself by the function.

In mathematical analysis, a family of functions is equicontinuous if all the functions are continuous and they have equal variation over a given neighbourhood, in a precise sense described herein. In particular, the concept applies to countable families, and thus sequences of functions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Closed graph theorem</span> Theorem relating continuity to graphs

In mathematics, the closed graph theorem may refer to one of several basic results characterizing continuous functions in terms of their graphs. Each gives conditions when functions with closed graphs are necessarily continuous.

In functional analysis and related branches of mathematics, the Banach–Alaoglu theorem states that the closed unit ball of the dual space of a normed vector space is compact in the weak* topology. A common proof identifies the unit ball with the weak-* topology as a closed subset of a product of compact sets with the product topology. As a consequence of Tychonoff's theorem, this product, and hence the unit ball within, is compact.

In mathematics, the Lefschetz fixed-point theorem is a formula that counts the fixed points of a continuous mapping from a compact topological space to itself by means of traces of the induced mappings on the homology groups of . It is named after Solomon Lefschetz, who first stated it in 1926.

The Arzelà–Ascoli theorem is a fundamental result of mathematical analysis giving necessary and sufficient conditions to decide whether every sequence of a given family of real-valued continuous functions defined on a closed and bounded interval has a uniformly convergent subsequence. The main condition is the equicontinuity of the family of functions. The theorem is the basis of many proofs in mathematics, including that of the Peano existence theorem in the theory of ordinary differential equations, Montel's theorem in complex analysis, and the Peter–Weyl theorem in harmonic analysis and various results concerning compactness of integral operators.

In mathematics, a number of fixed-point theorems in infinite-dimensional spaces generalise the Brouwer fixed-point theorem. They have applications, for example, to the proof of existence theorems for partial differential equations.

The Schauder fixed-point theorem is an extension of the Brouwer fixed-point theorem to topological vector spaces, which may be of infinite dimension. It asserts that if is a nonempty convex closed subset of a Hausdorff topological vector space and is a continuous mapping of into itself such that is contained in a compact subset of , then has a fixed point.

In mathematics, infinite-dimensional holomorphy is a branch of functional analysis. It is concerned with generalizations of the concept of holomorphic function to functions defined and taking values in complex Banach spaces, typically of infinite dimension. It is one aspect of nonlinear functional analysis.

In topology, a branch of mathematics, a retraction is a continuous mapping from a topological space into a subspace that preserves the position of all points in that subspace. The subspace is then called a retract of the original space. A deformation retraction is a mapping that captures the idea of continuously shrinking a space into a subspace.

In mathematical analysis, the Kakutani fixed-point theorem is a fixed-point theorem for set-valued functions. It provides sufficient conditions for a set-valued function defined on a convex, compact subset of a Euclidean space to have a fixed point, i.e. a point which is mapped to a set containing it. The Kakutani fixed point theorem is a generalization of the Brouwer fixed point theorem. The Brouwer fixed point theorem is a fundamental result in topology which proves the existence of fixed points for continuous functions defined on compact, convex subsets of Euclidean spaces. Kakutani's theorem extends this to set-valued functions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Set-valued function</span> Function whose values are sets (mathematics)

A set-valued function is a mathematical function that maps elements from one set, the domain of the function, to subsets of

The maximum theorem provides conditions for the continuity of an optimized function and the set of its maximizers with respect to its parameters. The statement was first proven by Claude Berge in 1959. The theorem is primarily used in mathematical economics and optimal control.

In functional analysis, a branch of mathematics, a selection theorem is a theorem that guarantees the existence of a single-valued selection function from a given set-valued map. There are various selection theorems, and they are important in the theories of differential inclusions, optimal control, and mathematical economics.

In mathematics, particularly in functional analysis, a webbed space is a topological vector space designed with the goal of allowing the results of the open mapping theorem and the closed graph theorem to hold for a wider class of linear maps whose codomains are webbed spaces. A space is called webbed if there exists a collection of sets, called a web that satisfies certain properties. Webs were first investigated by de Wilde.

In mathematics, particularly in functional analysis and topology, the closed graph theorem is a result connecting the continuity of certain kinds of functions to a topological property of their graph. In its most elementary form, the closed graph theorem states that a linear function between two Banach spaces is continuous if and only if the graph of that function is closed.

References

  1. Kinoshita, S. On Some Contractible Continua without Fixed Point Property. Fund. Math.40 (1953), 96–98