Abstract
This paper gives the new concepts of quasi -contractive multi-valued operators and establishes some related fixed point results for such operators. In addition, an application to certain functional equations arising from dynamic programming is given to illustrate the usage of the obtained results.
    1. Introduction and Preliminaries
As it is well known to all, the proverbial Banach contraction mapping principle is a very useful, simple and classical tool in modern mathematics, and has been widely used in many branches of mathematics and physics. Many mathematicians have researched and generalized the Banach contraction mapping principle along different directions, such as the fixed point theorem of fuzzy metric spaces, -algebra valued metric spaces and so on [,,,,]. In general the theorem has been extended in two directions. On the one hand, the usual contractive condition is replaced with a weakly contractive condition. On the other hand, the complete metric space is replaced by different types of metric spaces [,,]. However at present, in order to get an analog result, one always has to equip the powerset of a nonempty set with some suitable metric. One such a metric is a Hausdorff metric. It was Markin [] who used the Hausdorff metric to study the fixed point theory of the multi-valued contractive mappings for the first time. In 1969, Nadler [] and Reich [,] introduced the fixed point theorems of the multi-valued contractive operators respectively. Recently Popescu [] gave the concept of the contractive multi-valued operator and showed that such an operator is nothing but a weakly Picard operator. Based on [] Kamran and Hussain [] introduced the notion of the weakly contractive multi-valued operator.
This paper will introduce the concept of quasi -contractive multi-valued operator based on the notion and properties of -contractive multi-valued operator. Moreover, some fixed point theorems for mappings satisfying the contractive conditions about such an operator are established. In addition, the existence results for a type of functional equations arising in dynamic programming are given as an application.
To begin, let us start from some fundamental definitions and theorems as follows. Details can be seen in [,,,,,,,,].
Definition 1. 
[] Suppose that  is a nonempty metric space and  be the class of all nonempty bounded closed subsets of X. Set
      
        
      
      
      
      
    where , then  is a metric space and  is called a Hausdorff metric between A and B.
It is easy to see that if  is a complete metric space,  is complete as well.
Definition 2. 
[] Let X be a metric space and  be a multi-valued operator. If there exists  such that  for all , we call T a contractive multi-valued operator.
Definition 3. 
[] Let  be a metric space and  be a multi-valued operator. If there exists  and , such that
      
        
      
      
      
      
    where
      
        
      
      
      
      
    then T is called a -contractive multi-valued operator.
Theorem 1. 
[] Let  be a complete metric space and  be an -contractive multi-valued operator with . Then T has a fixed point, namely, there exists  such that .
Theorem 2. 
[] Let  be a complete metric space and  be an -contractive single-valued operator. Then T has a fixed point. Moreover, T has a uniqued fixed point for .
Definition 4. 
[] Let  be a metric space. The multi-valued map  is said to be a multi-valued quasi-contraction if
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Theorem 3. 
[] Let  be a complete metric space. Let  be a multi-valued quasi-contraction with . Then T has a fixed point.
By using the fact , we introduce the new notions which is combined the ideas of Harandi [], Popescu [] and Haghi [] for contractive multi-valued operators.
2. Main Results
Illuminated by the concept of -contractive multi-valued operator, this section will introduce a new operator, namely, the quasi -contractive multi-valued operator and give some related fixed point theorems.
Definition 5. 
Let  be a complete metric space and  be a multi-valued operator. If there exist  and  such that
      
        
      
      
      
      
    where
      
        
      
      
      
      
    then T is called a quasi -contractive multi-valued operator on X.
The following theorem generalizes the result of [] to the setting of complete metric space.
Theorem 4. 
Suppose that  is a complete metric space and  is a quasi -contractive multi-valued operator with  and . Then T has a fixed point.
Proof.  
Let  and .
If , then  is a fixed point of T. Let . Take  such that , where  with  and .
Since , by our hypothesis
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        where, 
Case(i) : If , then .
So  is a fixed point of T since .
Case(ii) : If , then we have
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Thus one can construct a sequence  in X such that  with
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        whenever,
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
It means  in X is a Cauchy sequence and  in X since is a complete metric space.
We now show that there exists a subsequence  of  such that .
Indeed, if there is a positive integer  such that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
This implies
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Using induction, one can obtain that for all , ,
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Futhermore,
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Set , then we have
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
So
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
But , so
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        and
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        set , we have
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
It implies that . This is contradict to . Therefore there exists a subsequence  of  such that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
By hypothesis, one has
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Therefore,
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Letting , we get
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        where it implies that  Hence  and  is a fixed point of T. This completes the proof. □
The following example shows that under the condition of Theorem 4 the fixed point may not be unique.
Example 1. 
Let  with  for all . Define  by
      
        
      
      
      
      
    Consider
      
        
      
      
      
      
    where we choose . Then the conditions of Theorem 4 are fulfilled. It is clear that the points 3 and 4 are both fixed points of T which implies that the fixed points are not unique.
It is necessary for us to consider when the fixed point of the quasi -contractive multi-valued operator is unique.
Corollary 1. 
Let  be a complete metric space and  be a quasi -contractive single-valued operator with  and . Then T has a unique fixed point.
Proof.  
Suppose  and  are fixed points of T and .
Then
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Using the hypothesis,
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
But .
So, , .
It implies  and  which leads to a contradiction.  □
The following is another result about the quasi -contractive multi-valued operator.
Theorem 5. 
Let  be a complete metric space and  be a multi-valued operator. Suppose that there exist constants  with  such that
      
        
      
      
      
      
    where
      
        
      
      
      
      
    then T has a fixed point.
Proof.  
Let  such that . Let  and  such that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
If , then  is a fixed point of T. Let .
Then we obtain
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
By our hypothesis, we get
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        where .
Take  such that , where  with  and .
Therefore
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Case(i) : If , then
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
It implies that  and so  is a fixed point of T.
Case(ii) : If , then
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Thus, one can construct a sequence  in X such that  and
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        with
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Then we obtain the sequence  in X is a Cauchy and  in X, since X is a complete meric space.
Since
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Since
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        it follows that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Now we have to show that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Assume that there is a positive integer  such that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Then we have
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        which is impossible.
So there exists a subsequence  of  in X such that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Since
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        and using the hypothesis, we obtain
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Thus
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
It implies that  and  is a fixed point of T.  □
Corollary 2. 
Let  be a complete metric space and  be a quasi -contractive single-valued mapping. Assume that there exist  such that 
      
        
      
      
      
      
    where
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Then there exists a fixed point of T.
Proof.  
Let  and . Take  for .
It is claim that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        and thus, by assumption of Theorem 5, we obtain
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
One can construct a sequence  in X with  such that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Then the sequence  in X is a Cauchy sequence and  in X since X is a complete meric space.
We can prove that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        and there exist a subsequence  of  in X such that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        hold for . so
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        so  and hence .
It implies that  is a fixed point of T.  □
3. Application
In this section, we discuss the existence and uniqueness of solutions of a functional equation by using Theorem 4.
We give the basic notation to use in the section. Let X and Y be Banach spaces and , .
Let  denote the set of all bounded functions on U. If the metric  is defined by , then  is a complete metric space.
Assume that U and V are the state and decision spaces respectively.
Then the problem of dynamic programming reduces to the problem of solving the functional equation:
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
      where  represents the transformation of the process and  represents the optimal return function with initial functional
      
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
      where  and  are bounded functions.
Define  by
      
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Then the following result is grated to find the existence and uniqueness of a solution of the classic functional equation by using theorem.
Theorem 6. 
Assume that there exist ,  such that for all ,  and . If the inequality
      
        
      
      
      
      
    where
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Then the functional equation (*) has a bounded solution. Moreover, if , then the solution is unique.
Proof.  
Let  and . Take . Let  be a positive real number such that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        where 
By the definition of T, we have
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Assume that . That is, .
So, by using Equations (1) and (4), we obtain
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Similarly, from Equations (2) and (3), we obtain
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
Thus
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
That is, .
So, we get that
        
      
        
      
      
      
      
    
        implies
It can be seen that all conditions of Theorem 4 are satisfied for T and hence it is proved.  □
Author Contributions
E.E.N. prepared the original draft, D.T. review end edited the manuscript and A.K.Z. reviewed the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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