1. Introduction
Fixed-point technique offers a focal concept with many diverse applications in nonlinear analysis. It is an important theoretical tool in many fields and various disciplines such as topology, game theory, optimal control, artificial intelligence, logic programming, dynamical systems (and chaos), functional analysis, differential equations, and economics.
Recently, many important extensions (or generalizations) of the metric space notion have been investigated (as examples, see References [
1,
2,
3,
4,
5]). In 1989, the class of of 
b-metric spaces has been introduced by Bakhtin [
6], that is, the classical triangle inequality is relaxed in the right-hand term by a parameter 
. This class was formally defined by Czerwik [
7] (see also References [
8,
9])) in 1993 with a view of generalizing the Banach contraction principle (BCP). The above class has been generalized by Mlaiki et al. [
10] and Abdeljawad et al. [
11], by introduction of control functions (see also Reference [
12]). Fagin et al. [
13] presented the notion of an 
s-relaxed metric. A 2-metric introduced by Gahler [
14] is a function defined on 
 (where 
ℑ is a nonempty set), and verifies some particular conditions. Gahler showed that a 2-metric generalizes the classical concept of a metric. While, different authors established that no relations exist between these two notions (see Reference [
15]). Mustafa and Sims [
16] initiated the class of 
G-metric spaces. Branciari [
17] gave a new generalization of the metric concept by replacing the triangle inequality with a more general one involving four points. Partial metric spaces have been introduced by Matthews [
18] (for related works, see References [
19,
20,
21]) as a part of the discussion of denotational semantics in dataflow networks. Jleli and Samet [
22] introduced the notion of a JS-metric, where the triangle inequality is replaced by a lim sup-condition. Very recently, Jleli and Samet [
23] also introduced the concept of 
F -metric spaces. For this, denote by 
 the set of functions 
 the following conditions:
	  
- (F1) 
- F is non-decreasing; 
- (F2) 
- for each sequence ; 
Definition 1 ([
23])
. Let ℑ be a nonempty set and  be a function. Assume that there exist a function  and  such that for -  
-  if and only if ; 
-  
- ; 
-  
- for each  with n  and for each  with  we have, 
Then D is said to be a F-metric on ℑ. The pair  is said to be a F-metric space.
 In this paper, we present a new generalization of the concept of metric spaces, namely, a —metric space. We compare our concept with the existing generalizations in the literature. Next, we give a natural topology  on these spaces, and study their topological properties. Moreover, we establish the BCP in the setting of -metric spaces. As applications, we ensure the existence of a unique solution of two Fredholm type integral equations.
  2. On —Metric Spaces
Definition 2. Let D be the set of functions  such that:
- (ϕ1) 
- ϕ is non-decreasing; 
- (ϕ2) 
- for each positive sequence , 
Let  be such that:
- (i) 
- ψ is monotone increasing, that is, ; 
- (ii) 
-  for every  
We denote by Ψ the set of functions satisfying (i)–(ii).
 Now, we introduce the notion of -metric spaces.
Definition 3. Let ℑ be a nonempty set and  be a function. Assume that there exist two functions  and  such that for all , the following hold:
-  
-  if and only if ; 
-  
- ; 
-  
- for each ,  and for each  with  we have 
Then d is named as a -metric on ℑ. The pair  is called a -metric space. It is known that property  states that this metric should measure the distances symmetrically.
 Remark 1. Any metric on ℑ is a -metric on ℑ. Indeed, if d is a metric on ℑ, then it satisfies () and (). On the other hand, by the triangle inequality, for every  for each integer  and for each  with , Then () holds with  and .
 Example 1. Let  and let  be defined byfor all . It is easy to see that d satisfies () and (). But, d does not verify the triangle inequality. Hence, d is not a metric on ℑ. Further, let  such that  Let  where  and  Consider,and Now, we have two cases:
- Case 1: 
- If  we haveObserve thatThus, we get that 
- Case 2: 
- If  we have 
By combining the above, we conclude that for all  for each integer  and for each  with , we have Therefore, d is a -metric.
 Remark 2. It should be noted that the class of -metric spaces is effectively larger than the set of F-metric spaces. Indeed, a -metric is a —metric by considering  and . We present an easy example to show that a -metric need not be a F -metric.
 Example 2. Let . Define  as Clearly, d is a  -metric on ℑ with  and . Assume that there are  and . Let  and  for . Using , we obtain Using (), we getwhich is a contradiction. Therefore, d is not a F-metric space on ℑ.    3. Topology of -Metric Spaces
Here, we study the natural topology defined on  -metric spaces.
Definition 4. Let  be a -metric space and M be a subset of ℑ. M is said to be -open if for each , there is  so that  where A subset Z of ℑ is called -closed if  is -open. We denote by  the set of all -open subsets of ℑ.
 Proposition 1. Let  be a  -metric space. Then  is a topology on ℑ.
 Proposition 2. Let  be a -metric space. Then, for each nonempty subset C of ℑ, we have equivalence of the following assertions:
- (i) 
- C is  -closed. 
- (ii) 
- For any sequence  we have 
 Proof.  Suppose that 
C is 
-closed. Let 
 be a sequence in 
C such that
        
        where 
. Assume that 
. Since 
C is 
-closed, 
 is 
-open. Hence, there is 
 so that 
, that is, 
. Also, by (
1), there is 
 so that
        
That is, 
. Hence, 
. It is a contradiction, and so 
. That is, 
 is proved. Conversely, assume that 
 is verified. Let 
. We now show that there is some 
 so that 
. We argue by contradiction. assume that for each 
, there is 
. Thus, for each 
, there is 
. Then 
 and
        
By , we get , which is a contradiction with . Thus, C is -closed and so . □
 Proposition 3. Let  be a -metric space,  and . Let  be the subset of ℑ given as Assume that for each sequence , we have Then  is -closed.
 Proof.  Let 
 be a sequence so that
        
From Proposition 2, we show that 
. By using the definition of 
, we obtain 
, 
. Taking 
, by (
2), we get
        
        which yields that 
. Consequently, 
 is 
-closed. □
 Remark 3. Proposition 3 gives only a sufficient condition ensuring that  is -closed. An interesting problem is devoted to get a sufficient and necessary condition under which  is -closed.
 Definition 5. Let  be a -metric space. Let C be a nonempty subset of ℑ. Let  be the closure of C with respect to the topology , that is,  is the intersection of all -closed subsets of ℑ containing C. Obviously,  is the smallest -closed subset containing C.
 Proposition 4. Let  be a -metric space. Let C be a nonempty subset of ℑ. If , then  for .
 Proof.  Let 
 and 
 be such that 
 holds. Define
        
By 
, it is easy to see that 
. Next, we will show that 
 is 
-closed. Let 
 be a sequence in 
 such that
        
By (
3), there are some 
 and 
 so that
        
Since 
, there is 
 so that
        
If 
, by 
, we have
        
Hence, in all cases, we obtain , which yields that . Then by Proposition 2,  is -closed, which contains C. Then . □
 Definition 6. Let  be a -metric space. Let  be a sequence in ℑ. We say that  is -convergent to  if  is convergent to σ with respect to the topology , that is, for each -open subset  of ℑ containing σ, there is  so that  for any . Here, σ is called the limit of .
 The next result comes directly by combining the above definition and the definition of .
Proposition 5. Let  be a -metric space. Let  be a sequence in ℑ and . We have equivalence of the following assertions:
- (i) 
-  is -convergent to σ. 
- (ii) 
- . 
 In the following, the limit of a -convergent sequence is unique.
Proposition 6. Let  be a -metric space. Let  be a sequence in ℑ. Then  Proof.  Assume that 
. By 
, 
. Using 
, there are 
 and 
 such that
        
        for every 
n. Next, in view of 
 and 
,
        
        and so 
, which is a contradiction, and so 
. □
 Definition 7. Let  be a -metric space. Let  be a sequence in  Then,
- (i) 
-  is -Cauchy if  
- (ii) 
-  is -complete, if any -Cauchy sequence in ℑ is -convergent to some element in ℑ. 
 Proposition 7. Let  be a -metric space. If  is -convergent, then it is -Cauchy.
 Proof.  Let 
 and 
 be such that (
) holds. Let 
 be so that
        
For any 
, there is 
 such that
        
Let . We consider the two following cases.
		
- Case 1:
- If  - . Here, by ( - ),
			 
- Case 2:
- If  - . Here, from ( 4- ), 
Now, using 
, we obtain
        
        which implies from 
 that
        
Consequently,
        
        that is, 
 is 
-Cauchy. □
 Now, we study the compactness on -metric spaces.
Definition 8. Let  be a -metric space. Let C be a nonempty subset of ℑ. then C is called -compact if C is compact with respect to the topology  on ℑ.
 Proposition 8. Let  be a -metric space. Let C be a nonempty subset of ℑ. Then, we have equivalent of the following assertions:
- (i) 
- C is -compact. 
- (ii) 
- For each sequence , there is a subsequence  of  so that 
 Proof.  Assume that 
C is 
-compact. Note that the set of decreasing sequences of nonempty 
-closed subsets of 
C has a nonempty intersection. Let 
 be a sequence in 
C. For any 
, let 
. Clearly, 
 for each 
. This implies that 
 is a decreasing sequence of nonempty 
-closed subsets of 
Z. Thus, there is 
. Given an arbitrary element 
. Since 
, by Proposition 4, there are 
 and 
 so that 
. Continuing in this direction, for any 
, there are 
 and 
 so that
        
Since C is -compact, one says that C is -closed, and .Hence, we established that . Conversely, suppose that  is satisfied. Let  and  such that  is satisfied.
We argue by contradiction. Suppose there is 
 so that for any finite number of elements 
,
        
Let 
 be a fixed element. Then
        
That is, there is 
 so that 
. Also,
        
So there is 
 so that 
 for 
 Continuing in this direction and by induction, we build a sequence 
 so that 
, 
 Note that we could bot extract from 
 any 
-Cauchy subsequence, and so (from Proposition 7), any 
-convergent subsequence. We get so a contradiction with (ii), which proves (
5). Next, let 
 be an arbitrary family of 
-open subsets of 
ℑ so that
        
We argue by contradiction. Assume that for every 
, there is 
 so that 
, for all 
. Particularly, for all 
 there is 
 so that 
 for all 
. By (ii), we build a subsequence 
 from 
 so that
        
        for some 
. Moreover, using (
6), there is 
 so that 
. In view of the fact that 
 is a 
-open subset of 
ℑ, there is 
 so that 
. Now, for each 
 and for every 
, one writes
        
Using (
8) and 
, there is 
 so that
        
        for each 
. It yields that
        
Consequently, by 
, we find that 
. Hence, we get
        
        for 
. Thus,
        
We get a contradiction with respect to
        
        for all 
. Then (
7) holds. Further, by (
5), there is 
 so that
        
But by (
7), for any 
, there exists 
 such that 
, which yields
        
Thus, C is -compact, and so (ii)⇒(i). □
 Definition 9. Let  be a -metric space. Let C be a nonempty subset of ℑ. The subset C is said to be sequentially -compact, if for each sequence, there are a subsequence  of  and  so that  Definition 10. Let  be a -metric space. Let C be a nonempty subset of ℑ. The subset C is called -totally bounded if  Due to the proof of Proposition 8, we may state the following proposition.
Proposition 9. Let  be a -metric space. Let C be a nonempty subset of ℑ.
- (i) 
- C is -compact if and only if C is sequentially -compact. 
- (ii) 
- If C is -compact, then C is -totally bounded. 
   4. Banach Contraction Principle on -Metric Spaces
In this section, we prove a new version of the BCP in the context of -metric spaces.
Theorem 1. Let  be a complete -metric space and  be a self-mapping. Suppose that there exists  such that for all  Then T has a unique fixed point in 
 Proof.  Let 
. Define the sequence 
 in 
ℑ by
        
If for some 
n, 
 then 
 is a fixed point of 
 Without restriction of the generality, we may suppose that 
 for all 
n. Using (
9), we get
        
        for all 
 Thus,
        
Hence, by 
, we have
        
Since 
 is monotone increasing, we obtain for 
Since
        
        by 
, we have
        
Using 
, we obtain
        
Then from 
, we have
        
Therefore, 
 is a 
-Cauchy sequence in 
ℑ. Since 
ℑ is 
-complete, we can find 
 such that
        
Next, we prove that 
. We argue by contradiction. Assume that 
. By using 
, we obtain
        
        for 
 By (
9) and 
,
        
By using 
 and (
11), we get
        
        which is a contradiction. Therefore, 
 and 
. Thus, 
T has a fixed point 
. Next, we prove that 
T has at most one fixed point. Assume that 
 and 
 are two fixed points of 
T such that 
. Then from (
9), we have
        
It is a contradiction. Hence, T has a unique fixed point in . □
 Corollary 1. Let  be a -metric space. Suppose there exist a continuous comparison function  and  so that  holds. Let  be a given mapping, where  and . Assume that:
- (i) 
- Suppose that for each sequence , we have 
- (ii) 
-  is -complete; 
- (iii) 
- There exists  such that 
- (iv) 
- There exists  such that 
Then S has a fixed point.
 Proof.  Consider 
 such that 
 is satisfied. First, we will show that
        
Let 
, that is, 
. Assume that 
. By (
),
        
Using 
, we obtain
        
Hence, by (
1), we have 
, which yields 
. Therefore,
        
Further, the mapping  is well-defined, and the Banach contraction condition holds. Next, since the condition of Proposition 3 is satisfied, it is known that  is -closed, so from , it is -complete. Finally, the result is deduced by using Theorem 1. □
   5. Solving a Nonlinear Fredholm Integral Equation
This section is devoted to discusses the existence and uniqueness of a solution of a Fredholm type integral equation of the 2nd kind [
24,
25,
26,
27,
28,
29]. Consider the equation below:
	  
Let 
 be the set of all continuous functions defined on 
 For 
 and 
 define 
 by
      
Then  is a complete —metric space with  and .
To study the existence of a solution for the problem (
12), we state and prove the theorem below.
Theorem 2. Consider the problem (12) via the assumptions below: - (†1)
-  and  are continuous functions; 
- (†2)
- For  we have 
- (†3)
Then the nonlinear integral equation (12) has a unique solution in Θ.  Proof.  Define the operator 
 by
        
The solution of problem (
12) is a fixed point for the operator (
13). By hypotheses 
 we have
        
Thus, the condition (
9) of Theorem 1 holds with 
 Therefore, all hypotheses of Theorem 1 are fulfilled. So the problem (
12) has a unique solution in 
. □
 The example below supports Theorem 2.
Example 3. has a solution in 
 Proof.  Define the operator  by  Customize  and  in Theorem 2. Note that
        
Therefore, the stipulations of Theorem 2 are justified, hence the mapping 
T has a unique fixed point in 
, which is the unique solution of the Equation (
14). □
   6. Solving a Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Fredholm Integral Equation
In many problems in engineering and mechanics under a suitable transformation, two-dimensional Fredholm integral equations of the second kind appear. For example, in the calculation of plasma physics, it is usually required to solve some Fredholm integral equations, see References [
30,
31,
32].
Now, consider the two-dimensional Fredholm integral equation of the shape:
	  
      where 
e, 
 and 
ℸ are given continuous functions defined on 
 and 
 is a function in 
Let  be the set of all real valued continuous functions on  Consider the same distance of the above section, then for  the pair  is a complete —metric space with  and .
Now, we consider the problem (
15) under the hypotheses below:
	  
- (‡1)
-  and  and  are continuous functions; 
- (‡2)
- for all  -  there is a constant  -  such that
           
- (‡3)
- we have  
Our related theorem in this part is listed as follows.
Theorem 3. The problem (15) has a unique solution in  if the hypotheses  hold.  Proof.  Define the operator 
 by
        
        then for 
 we get
        
Taking the supremum, we get
        
Thus, from Theorem 1, the operator (
16) has a unique fixed point in 
 which is considered as the unique solution of the problem (
15). □