For a short reminder about ordered fields you can have a look to following post. We prove there that \(\mathbb{Q}\) can be ordered in only one way.
That is also the case of \(\mathbb{R}\) as \(\mathbb{R}\) is a real-closed field. And one can prove that the only possible positive cone of a real-closed field is the subset of squares.
Let \(K\) be a field. An ordering of \(K\) is a subset \(P\) of \(K\) having the following properties:
ORD 1
Given \(x \in K\), we have either \(x \in P\), or \(x=0\), or \(-x \in P\), and these three possibilities are mutually exclusive. In other words, \(K\) is the disjoint union of \(P\), \(\{0\}\), and \(-P\).
Let \(f_1(x) = |x|\) for \(| x | \le \frac{1}{2}\), and let \(f_1\) be defined for other values of \(x\) by periodic continuation with period \(1\). \(f_1\) graph looks like following picture:
Let’s remind that an extreme point \(c\) of a convex set \(C\) in a real vector space \(E\) is a point in \(C\) which does not lie in any open line segment joining two points of \(C\).
Consider the piecewise linear function \(f\) defined on \([0,+\infty)\) taking following values for all \(n \in \mathbb{N^*}\):
\[
f(x)=
\left\{
\begin{array}{ll}
0 & \mbox{if } x=0\\
0 & \mbox{if } x=n-\frac{1}{2n^3}\\
n & \mbox{if } x=n\\
0 & \mbox{if } x=n+\frac{1}{2n^3}\\
\end{array}
\right.
\]
Most of Cauchy existence theorems for a differential equation
\begin{equation}
\textbf{x}^\prime = \textbf{f}(t,\textbf{x})
\end{equation} where \(t\) is a real variable and \(\textbf{x}\) a vector on a real vectorial space \(E\) are valid when \(E\) is of finite dimension or a Banach space. This is however not true for the Peano existence theorem. Continue reading A continuous differential equation with no solution→
We consider a decreasing sequence \((C_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}\) of non empty closed convex subsets of a Banach space \(E\).
If the convex subsets are closed balls, their intersection is not empty. To see this let \(x_n\) be the center and \(r_n > 0\) the radius of the ball \(C_n\). For \(0 \leq n < m\) we have \(\Vert x_m-x_n\Vert \leq r_n – r_m\) which proves that \((x_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}\) is a Cauchy sequence. As the space \(E\) is Banach, \((x_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}\) converges to a limit \(x\) and \(x \in \bigcap_{n=0}^{+\infty} C_n\). Continue reading An empty intersection of nested closed convex subsets in a Banach space→
