A fixed point theorem for set-valued quasi-contractions in b-metric spaces

In this article, we give a fixed point theorem for set-valued quasi-contraction maps in b-metric spaces. This theorem extends, unifies and generalizes several well known comparable results in the existing literature.

The Banach contraction principle [1] is a very popular tool in solving existence problems in many branches of mathematical analysis. This famous theorem can be stated as follows.

Theorem 1.1. Let (X, d) be a complete metric space and T be a mapping of X into itself satisfying:

where k is a constant in [0, 1). Then, T has a unique fixed point x* ∈ X.

A mapping T : X → X is said to be a quasi-contraction if there exists 0 ≤ q < 1 such that for any x, y ∈ X,

In 1974, Ćirić [2] introduced these maps and proved an existence and uniqueness fixed point theorem.

The study of fixed points for multi-valued contraction maps using the Hausdorff metric was initiated by Nadler [3] in 1969, who extended the Banach contraction principle to set-valued mappings. Since then many authors have studied fixed points for set-valued maps. The theory of set-valued maps has many applications in control theory, convex optimization, differential equations and economics.

Definition 1.1. Let X be any nonempty set. An element x in X is said to be a a fixed point of a multi-valued mapping T : X → 2^X if x ∈ Tx, where 2^X denotes the collection of all nonempty subsets of X.

Let (X, d) be a metric space. Let be the collection of all nonempty closed bounded subsets of X. For , define

where

with

Note that H is called the Hausdorff metric induced by the metric d.

Definition 1.2. Let (X, d) be a metric space. The set-valued map is said to be a q-set-valued quasi-contraction if there exists 0 ≤ q < 1 such that for any x, y ∈ X,

Recently, Amini-Harandi [4] proved a set-valued version of the above mentioned Ćirić's theorem [2] as follows:

Theorem 1.2. Let (X, d) be a complete metric space. Suppose that is said to be a q-set-valued quasi-contraction. Assume that , then T has a fixed point in X, that is, there exists u ∈ X such that u ∈ Tu.

In the sequel, the letters and will denote the set of all nonnegative real numbers, the set of all natural numbers and the set of all positive natural numbers, respectively.

Some problems, particularly the problem of the convergence of measurable functions with respect to a measure, lead to a generalization of notion of a metric. Using this idea, Czerwik [5] presented a generalization of the well known Banachs's fixed point theorem [1] in so-called b-metric spaces. Consistent with [5,6], we use the following notations and definitions.

Definition 1.3. [6]Let X be a nonempty set and s ≥ 1 a given real number. A function is called a b-metric provided that, for all x, y, z ∈ X,

(bm-1) d(x, x) = 0,

(bm-2) d(x, y) = d(y, x),

(bm-3) d(x, y) ≤ s(d(x, z) + d(z, y)).

Note that a (usual) metric space is evidently a b-metric space. However, Czerwik [5,6] has shown that a b-metric on X need not be a metric on X (see also [7-11]. The following example of Singh and Prasad [12] shows that a b-metric on X need not be a metric on X.

Example 1.4. Let X = {0, 1, 2} and d(2, 0) = d(0, 2) = m ≥ 2, d(0, 1) = d(1, 2) = d(0, 1) = d(2, 1) = 1 and d(0, 0) = d(1, 1) = d(2, 2) = 0. Then,

for all x, y, z ∈ X. If m > 2, the ordinary triangle inequality does not hold.

An example of a b-metric space was given in [13].

Example 1.5. Let E be a Banach space and 0_E be the zero vector of E. Let P be a cone in E with int(P) ≠ ∅ and ≤ be a partial ordering with respect to P. A mapping d : X × X → E is called a cone metric on the nonempty set X if the following axioms are satisfied:

(1) 0_E ≤ d(x, y) for all x, y ∈ X and d(x, y) = 0_E if and only if x = y;

(2) d(x, y) = d(y, x), for all x, y ∈ X;

(3) d(x, y) ≤ d(x, z) + d(z, y), for all x, y, z ∈ X.

The pair (X, d), where X is a nonempty set and d is a cone metric, is called a cone metric space.

Notice that in [[14], Lemma 5], if the cone P is normal with a constant K, then the cone metric d : X × X → E is continuous, i.e. if {x_n}, {y_n} are sequences in X with x_n → x and y_n → y as n → ∞, then d(x_n, y_n) → d(x, y), as n → ∞.

Let E be a Banach space and P be a normal cone in E with the coefficient of normality denoted by K. Let be defined by D(x, y) = ||d(x, y)||, where d : X × X → E is a cone metric space. Then (X, D) is a b-metric space with constant s := K ≥ 1.

Moreover, since the topology τ_d generated by the cone metric d coincides with the topology τ_D generated by the b-metric D, (see [[15], Theorem 2.4]), the b-metric D is continuous.

Let (X, d) be a b-metric space. From now on, we keep the same notations given by (1.2)-(1.4), except that d is a b-metric on X. We cite the following lemmas from Czerwik [5,6,9] and Singh et al. [11].

Lemma 1.3. Let (X, d) be a b-metric space. For any and any x, y ∈ X, we have the following:

(i) d(x, B) ≤ d(x, b) for any b ∈ B,

(ii) δ(A, B) ≤ H(A, B),

(iii) d(x, B) ≤ H(A, B) for any x ∈ A,

(iv) H(A, A) = 0,

(v) H(A, B) = H(B, A),

(vi) H(A, C) ≤ s(H(A, B) + H(B, C)),

(vii) d(x, A) ≤ s(d(x, y) + d(y, A)).

Lemma 1.4. Let (X, d) be a b-metric space. Let A and B be in . Then for each α > 0 and for all b ∈ B there exists a ∈ A such that d(a, b) ≤ H(A, B) + α.

Lemma 1.5. Let (X, d) be a b-metric space. For and x ∈ X, we have

In this article, we establish the analogous of Theorem 1.2 on a complete b-metric space. The main theorem extends several well known comparable results in the existing literature.

We start with the following preliminary lemma which we need in the sequel.

Lemma 2.1. [16]Let (X, d) be a b-metric space and {y_n} a sequence in X such that

where 0 ≤ γ < 1. Then, {y_n} is a Cauchy sequence in X provided that sγ < 1.

Let (X, d) be a b-metric space. Again as in [4], the set-valued map is said to be a q-set-valued quasi-contraction if for any x, y ∈ X,

where 0 ≤ q < 1 and

Our main result is the following.

Theorem 2.2. Let (X, d) be a complete b−metric space. Suppose that T is a q-set-valued quasi-contraction. Assume that , then T has a fixed point in X, that is, there exists u ∈ X such that u ∈ Tu.

Proof. Obviously, M(x, y) = 0 if and only if x = y is a fixed point of T. For the rest, assume that M(x, y) > 0 for all x, y ∈ X.

Take

Since we assumed that , so ε > 0 and 0 < β < 1.

Let x₀ ∈ X and x₁ ∈ Tx₀. By Lemma 1.4, there must exist x₂ ∈ Tx₁ such that

Similarly, there exists x₃ ∈ Tx₂ such that

Thus, by induction there exists a sequence {x_n} in X such that x_n+1 ∈ Tx_n and

Set d_n = d(x_n, x_n+1). We have

Assume for some , x_n = x_n+1, then x_n ∈ Tx_n, so the proof is completed. For the rest, for each n assume that d_n ≠ 0.

On the other hand, for any

If for some , max{d_n-1, d_n, s(d_n-1 + d_n)} = d_n, then from (2.3) we find that 0 < d_n ≤ βd_n, which is a contradiction with respect to 0 < β < 1. We deduce

Therefore, (2.3) becomes

Put

Thus

Having in mind s ≥ 1, and , so it is easy that

Therefore, by (2.4), (2.5) and Lemma 2.1, the sequence {x_n} is Cauchy in (X, d). Since the b-metric space (X, d) is complete, so there exists u ∈ X such that

We claim that u ∈ Tu, that is, u is a fixed point of T. From (2.1), we have

where

From (2.4), we may write d_n ≤ γⁿd₀ for each n. Since γ < 1, we have

The condition (rm-3) yields d(x_n+1, u) ≤ s(d(x_n+1, x_n) + d(x_n, u)), so

Again, by Lemma 1.3, d(x_n, Tu) ≤ s(d(x_n, u) + d(u, Tu), then letting n → +∞ and using (2.4), we get

By (2.6)-(2.8), letting n → +∞, we get

Moreover, since x_n+1 ∈ Tx_n, hence d(x_n+1, Tu) ≤ H(Tx_n, Tu). Again, because d(u, Tu) ≤ s(d(u, x_n+1) + d(x_n+1, Tu), so

Letting n → +∞ and using (2.4) and (2.9), we find

This leads to

But, since , so qs² < 1, hence (2.10) is true unless d(u, Tu) = 0. From Lemma 1.5, we deduce that u ∈ Tu because that Tu is a closed subset in X. This completes the proof of Theorem 2.2.

Remark 2.1. Taking s = 1 in Theorem 2.2 (it corresponds to the case of metric spaces), the condition on q becomes , so we find Theorem 1.2 of Amini-Harandi. Hence, Theorem 2.2 is an extension of the result of Amini-Harandi [4], which itself improves Theorem 3.3 of Daffer and Kaneko [17]and Corollary 3.3 of Rouhani and Moradi [18].

In 2008, Singh et al. [16] obtained the following result.

Theorem 2.3. Let (X, d) be a complete b-metric space. Take 0 < q < 1 and 0 < k < 1 with . Suppose that such that

for all x, y ∈ X. Assume that sq^1-k < 1 and αs < 1. Then, T has a fixed point in X, that is, there exists u ∈ X such that u ∈ Tu.

Remark 2.2. Note that

so each mapping satisfying (2.11) is also a q-set-valued quasi-contraction. Note that Ćirić [19]was the first who studied the contraction (2.11) for single-valued mappings in a metric space. If we take the parameters 0 < k < 1 and 0 < q < 1 such that

it is easy to get sq^1-k < 1 and αs < 1 where α is given by Theorem 2.3. Therefore, in this case Theorem 2.2 improves Theorem 2.3.

Remark 2.3. Theorem 2.2 is a partial reply to a question proposed by Singh et al. [[16], p. 412].

In the case where T : X → X is a q-single-valued quasi-contraction on a b-metric space, we have the following corollary (it is a consequence of Theorem 2.2).

Corollary 2.4. Let (X, d) be a b-metric space and T : X → X. Suppose there exists 0 ≤ q < 1 such that

Assume that , then T has a fixed point, that is, there exists u ∈ X such that u = Tu.

Proof. It follows by applying Theorem 2.2 and the fact that H(Tx, Ty) = d(Tx, Ty) for each x, y ∈ X.   □

Remark 2.4. Taking s = 1 in Corollary 2.4, we find the result of Ćirić [2].

Now, we give some examples illustrating our results.

Example 2.1. Let X = 0[1]and d(x, y) = |x − y|² for all x, y ∈ X. It is obvious that d is a b-metric on X with s = 2 and (X, d) is complete. Also, d is not a metric on X. Define by

We shall check that (2.1) is satisfied for all x, y ∈ X. Without loss of generality, take x ≤ y. If x = y ∈ X or x, y ∈ [0, 1), then Tx = Ty, so H(Tx, Ty) = 0, that is (2.1) holds. Otherwise for all x < y, (that is 0 ≤ x < 1 and y = 1), standard calculations yield that

where and M(x, y) is given by (2.2).

We deduce that (2.1) holds for all x, y ∈ X. All hypotheses of Theorem 2.2 are satisfied. Here, are are the two fixed points of T.

On the other hand, Nadler's Theorem [3]is not applicable for Euclidian metric d₀(x, y) = |x − y|. Indeed, let H₀ be the Hausdoff metric induced by the metric d₀. For and y = 1, we have

Also, we couldn't apply Theorem 1.2 (the main result of Amini-Harandi [4]). Indeed, take the metric D : X × X → [0, ∞) given by

Let H_D be the Hausdorff metric induced by the metric D. Again, for and y = 1, we get that

Example 2.2. Let X = [[1], ∞) be equipped with the complete b-metric d(x, y) = |x − y|² for all x, y ∈ X, (s = 2). Define by for all x ∈ X. Also, take . We have

for all x, y ∈ X, that is (2.1) holds. All hypotheses of Theorem 2.2 are satisfied and u = 1 is a fixed point of T .

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

All authors contributed equally and significantly in writing this article. All authors read and approve the final manuscript.

The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to the editor and the anonymous referees for their valuable comments and useful suggestions in improving the article. A special thank goes to Professor Stojan Radenović for helping us to finalize Example 2.1. The second author is partially supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0094. The fourth author is thankful to the Ministry of Sciences of Republic Serbia.

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