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 first result in the field was the Schauder fixed point theorem, proved in 1930 by Juliusz Schauder. Quite a number of further results followed. One way in which fixed-point theorems of this kind have had a larger influence on mathematics as a whole has been that one approach is to try to carry over methods of algebraic topology, first proved for finite simplicial complexes, to spaces of infinite dimension. For example, the research of Jean Leray who founded sheaf theory came out of efforts to extend Schauder's work.

The Schauder fixed point theorem states, in one version, that if C is a nonempty closed convex subset of a Banach space V and f is a continuous map from C to C whose image is countably compact, then f has a fixed point.

The Tikhonov (Tychonoff) fixed point theorem is applied to any locally convex topological vector space V. It states that for any non-empty compact convex set X in V, and continuous function

f:X → X,

there is a fixed point for f.

Other results are the Kakutani and Markov fixed point theorems, now subsumed in the Ryll-Nardzewski fixed point theorem (1967).

References

• Vasile I. Istratescu, Fixed Point Theory, An Introduction, D.Reidel, Holland (1981). ISBN 90-277-1224-7.
• Andrzej Granas and James Dugundji, Fixed Point Theory (2003) Springer-Verlag, New York, ISBN 0-387-00173-5.
• William A. Kirk and Brailey Sims, Handbook of Metric Fixed Point Theory (2001), Kluwer Academic, London ISBN 0-7923-7073-2.