What is a fixed point theorem?

What are the

applications of fixed point theory? Is every
proven fixed point theorem applicable?
Can anyone suggest new branches where we can apply fixed point theory? Is there any application of
fixed point theory to medical sciences?

Topics

Applied Mathematics
Nonlinear Analysis
Medical Applications
Differential Equations
Fixed Point Theory
Dec 29, 2013 Modified Dec 29, 2013 by the commenter.

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Diana Maria Thomas Montclair State University
There is a nice general book by the MAA that is cheap called Fixed Point Theorems (I think). In
my field they are used to prove existence and uniqueness of solutions to ordinary differential
equations or to prove that iterative numerical schemes converge to what they are supposed to
converge to.
 Dec 29, 2013

All Answers (13)

Stefan Born Technische Universitt Berlin
Any theorem which, in some category, states, that for f:X\to X there is an x\in X with f(x) or for
some f:X\to P(X) there is an x\in X with x\in f(x) would be called a fixed point theorem. More
precise statements about the set of all fixed points, that is \{ x\in X | x=f(x) \} or \{x\in X | x\in
f(x)\}, respectively, would be entitled to the name 'fixed point theorem' as well.

There are, broadly speakting, two types of fixed point theorems:

1. Constructive fixed point theorems (e.g. Banach fixed point theorem) which not only claim the
existence of a fixed point but yield an algorithm, too (in the Banach case fixed point iteration
x_{n+1}=f(x_n)). Banach's fixed point theorem is omnipresent in analysis, both for existence
proofs (Picard-Lindelf) as for numerical schemes that allow the approximation of solutions of
(differential, integral,...) equations. Any equation that can be written as x=f(x) for some map f
that is contracting with respect to some (complete) metric on X will provide such a fixed point
iteration. When it comes to medical science, the Banach fixed point theorem will be often
(implicitly or explicitly) present when some relevant biological or chemical process is modelled
by equations. I you use numerical software, it probably relies in some parts on this fixed point
theorem. Some of the algorithms for the reconstruction of a 3d-image from tomographic data
use fixed point iterations...

2. Non-constructive fixed point theorems

Fixed point theorems like Brouwer's, Schauder's, Kakutani's, Lefschetz', Knaster-Tarski, etc.
will provide criteria for the existence of a fixed point (and, for example in the case of Lefschetz,
allow an estimate of the number of fixed points, if these are sufficiently regular). The existence
of a fixed point, that is the existence of the solution of some equation x=f(x) or x\in f(x) is often
an important piece of information, though these theorems typically do not boil down to an
algorithm which finds a solution. They will contribute to a qualitative understanding of the
models but can also serve as a basis for decisions about where to look for solutions of equations.
As to real world applications, there are famous examples like the existence of market equilibria
in economics; for medicine it is less obvious. But, as medical science is full of dynamical
systems, I suppose that these theorems will be used in relevant mathematical models. (By a
rapid search I found, for example, papers on the modelling of blood coagulation that use fixed
point theorems, and more examples from "mathematical biology". But I really do not know
'medical sciences', so I have to refrain from any further claims.)

I'm afraid, most of this can be found in any encyclopedia. I hope it may be useful, though.
Dec 29, 2013

Michael Patriksson Chalmers University of Technology
Well, here is one very quick answer: the theory is very rich, and so is the variety of applications.
 Here are links to some journals with a strong focus on your area of interest:

http://www.springer.com/mathematics/analysis/journal/13663

http://www.springer.com/birkhauser/mathematics/journal/11784

http://www.pphmj.com/journals/jpfpta.htm

By simply browsing the journals' home page you will find several applications, including
medical science, including mathematical biology.

There are also a fair number of basic books on the subject: see, for example the site

http://www.drkhamsi.com/fpt/books.html

which lists some books appearing before 2004.

Further, one should note that fixed point theory is a natural ingredient in the support of analysis
and solutions methods for variational inequality and nonlinear optimization problems appearing
in applications, and for such a book, I would take a look at this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Fixed-Theory-Springer-Monographs-Mathematics/dp/0387001735

It has been praised by many.

yours

Michael
Dec 29, 2013

Diana Maria Thomas Montclair State University

There is a nice general book by the MAA that is cheap called Fixed Point Theorems (I think). In
my field they are used to prove existence and uniqueness of solutions to ordinary differential
equations or to prove that iterative numerical schemes converge to what they are supposed to
converge to.
Dec 29, 2013

Atiya Zaidi Habib University

In brief, fixed point theory is a powerful tool to determine uniqueness of solutions to dynamical
systems and is widely used in theoretical and applied analysis. So it must be applicable to
mathematical biology as well.
Jan 1, 2014

Farshid Khojasteh Islamic Azad University of Arak

 I can say that when you confront with a problem in mathematics which its aim is to find a
unique answer you and use fixed point theory. In medicine or engineering or others
Jan 14, 2014

Michael Patriksson Chalmers University of Technology

Farshid, that means of course that one would try to establish that the problem can somehow be
equivalently transformed into the solution to a fixed-point problem, for which you show that the
problem-defining mapping is contractive.

That a problem has a unique solution can of course be established also by other means. In the
case of an optimization problem is it enough to establish that the feasible set is closed and
convex and the objective function is continuous, weakly coercive (tends to plus infinity when
the norm of the variable vector does), and strictly convex on the feasible set.
Jan 14, 2014

Michael Patriksson Chalmers University of Technology

An answer to one of the original questions:

Applications to medical science do exist. One such application is to feasibility and inverse
optimization problems arising in the context of finding good radiation dose plans for the cure of
cancer. These problems can often be formulated as inverse or feasibility problems, for which
fixed-point theory provides algorithms, or arguments for the convergence of various iterative
methods. Here is one out of many papers on the subject (and Y. Censor has written plenty):
http://faculty.uml.edu/cbyrne/cekb05.pdf
Jan 15, 2014

Ahmed Zeghal Facult des Sciences et Techniques de Beni Mellal

There is a nice book dedicated to fixed point theorems and their applications :
"Zeidler, Eberhard. Nonlinear functional analysis and its applications. I. Fixed-point theorems.
Springer-Verlag, New York, 1986."

For applications to economics and game theory see for example "Border, Kim C. Fixed point
theorems with applications to economics and game theory. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1989."
Jun 9, 2014

Michael Patriksson Chalmers University of Technology

... and of course that just mentioned volume by Eberhard Zeidler is accompanied by an
additional four volumes, with a slightly stronger focus on applications:

2A on Linear mootone operators,

2B on Nonlinear monotone operators,
3 on Variational methods and optimization, and
 4 on Applications to mathematical physics.
Jun 9, 2014

Farshid Khojasteh Islamic Azad University of Arak
I know a very nice application of fixed point theory in medical sciences:
Please read the following paper which I attached.
1303.3504.pdf
Jun 10, 2014

Atma Sahu Coppin State University
Great--than you.You learn every day...
Jun 22, 2015

Octav Olteanu Polytechnic University of Bucharest
As a direct application of the fixed point theorem (successive approximation method), I recall
approximating the solutions of some scalar or operatorial equations which cannot be solved
exactly. Here it should be mentioned that in some cases, the iteration from the contraction
principle is the same as that of the Newton's method. As "theoretical applications", I could
mention the proof of the existence and uniqueness of the solution of the Cauchy problem for
differential equations (and systems of equations), as well as the proof of the implicit function
theorem.

Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem

Figure 1

One of the most useful theorems in mathematics is an amazing topological result known as the
Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem.
 Take two sheets of paper, one lying directly above the other. If you crumple the top sheet, and
place it on top of the other sheet, then Brouwer's theorem says that there must be at least one
point on the top sheet that is directly above the corresponding point on the bottom sheet! Do you
believe that?

In dimension three, Brouwer's theorem says that if you take a cup of coffee, and slosh it around,
then after the sloshing there must be some point in the coffee which is in the exact spot that it
was before you did the sloshing (though it might have moved around in between). Moreover, if
you tried to slosh that point out of its original position, you can't help but slosh another point
back into its original position!

More formally the theorem says that a continuous function from an N-ball into an N-ball must
have a fixed point. Continuity of the function is essential (if you rip the paper or if you slosh
discontinuously, then there may not be fixed point).

Presentation Suggestions:
Bring a coffee cup and 2 sheets of paper with you and demonstrate as you present the fun fact.
Draw a grid on the paper, number the gridboxes, then xerox that sheet of paper. After you
crumple the paper, you can say that at least one number is on top of the corresponding number
on the lower sheet of paper. Alternatively, bring a map of Claremont (or whatever city you are in)
to class and drop it on the floor---then there must be some point in the map lying directly over
the point that it represents! A good follow-up Fun Fact is the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem.

The Math Behind the Fact:

Fixed point theorems are some of the most important theorems in all of mathematics. Among
other applications, they are used to show the existence of solutions to differential equations, as
well as the existence of equilibria in game theory. There are many proofs of the Brouwer fixed
point theorem. The advanced student may wish to see if she can show the equivalence of this
theorem with Sperner's lemma, which yields a rather nice elementary proof.

How to Cite this Page:

Su, Francis E., et al. "Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem." Math Fun Facts.
<http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts>.

References:

any undergraduate text on topology

Keywords: topology, analysis

Subjects: topology
Level: Medium
Fun Fact suggested by: Francis Su