1. Introduction
Fixed point theory is one of the most powerful research fields that proves very useful in both pure and applied mathematics aspects. In recent decades, an abundance of real-world problems have been treated from the perspective of fixed point theory. This is one of the reasons why fixed point theory keeps expanding in both popularity among researchers and the breadth of research topics. Recently, applications of fixed point theory have emerged in almost every branch of science by transforming the original questions into fixed point problems. One of its prominent applications is that mathematicians usually employ fixed point theory to establish the existence and uniqueness of solutions to differential and integral equations. Fixed point theory is employed to ascertain the identity and existence of fractional order models in the context of the climate change model under fractional derivatives, which includes investigating the effects of accelerating global warming on aquatic ecosystems by considering variables that change over time [
1] and exploring how atmospheric carbon dioxide can be controlled through planting genetically modified trees [
2].
Other notable advantages of fixed point theory lie among signal recovery problems involving several blurred filters. In addition, the theory also shows great involvement in the attempt to restore original images, solving image restoration problems. It is worth pointing out that what we have listed here is only a small part of the advantages of fixed point theory. For other amazing applications of the field, we encourage the reader to explore [
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9]. Furthermore, other celebrated works in the field can also be found in the references mentioned in these papers.
As mentioned above, fixed point theory expands its research topics in various dimensions. Specifically, one of the most active fields among researchers is solving best proximity point problems; see for instance [
10,
11,
12,
13,
14,
15,
16,
17,
18]. This is because best proximity points generalize the idea of fixed points by permitting mathematicians to consider the closest points to being fixed points in the case when the existence of a fixed point fails to be achieved. In this work, we study the case that extends the previous idea by considering a point that is the best proximity point of two functions simultaneously, namely, a common best proximity point. To be more precise, we recall that a common best proximity point is the point that, together with its image, realizes the distance between the domain and codomain of a pair of functions. This allows us to obtain the most achievable solution to a common fixed point problem in the case when there are no fixed points. It is worth noting that one of the significant benefits of studying common best proximity problems also emerges in guaranteeing the existence of solutions to differential equations, which we will explicitly illustrate in this paper.
Alternatively, researchers can impose various conditions to attain proof of the existence and uniqueness of a common best proximity point. One of the techniques that we will employ here is to adjust a factor that dominates the key inequality in the Banach contraction principle. In other words, we construct a particular class of functions that will play an important role as a generalized idea of contractions. Our idea is inspired by the work of M. A. Geraghty. First mentioned in [
19], M. A. Geraghty initiated the concept of a function class
S consisting of mappings
satisfying
This provided the existence of fixed points for self-mappings in metric spaces and generalized the Banach contraction principle. Later, in [
20], M. I. Ayari extended previous works in the literature by introducing the concept of a function class
F consisting of mappings
satisfying
As a consequence, this definition established the existence and uniqueness outcomes for the best proximity points in the case of closed subsets of complete metric spaces. Recently, in [
21], A. Khemphet et al. generated the idea of dominating proximal generalized Geraghty for pairs of functions by employing the class
F above and proved the existence and uniqueness theorems for common best proximity points in complete metric spaces. This work extended previous results in the literature and, in particular, extended recent results by L. Chen; see [
22].
In this work, we also adopt the famous notion of metric spaces endowed with directed graphs. This powerful idea was first brought up in the construction of J. Jachymski; see [
23]. It is very influential that several research articles with this theme keep emerging repeatedly in the literature; see for instance [
24,
25,
26,
27,
28,
29,
30].
Our main goal of this paper is to initiate a more general concept of dominating proximal generalized Geraghty pairs, namely Geraghty dominating of type
pairs. With this definition, we aim to extend preceding works in the literature to the case of metric spaces endowed with directed graphs. Indeed, we will prove the existence and uniqueness results for common best proximity points in our settings. To be more specific, we organize this paper into six consecutive sections. Our first section is the introduction that provides the motivation and objectives of this work. In
Section 2, we offer our main results including important definitions and the main theorem, which asserts the existence and uniqueness results for a common best proximity point of a pair of functions
in complete metric space. In
Section 3, we provide a concrete example supporting our main results along with the consequent corollaries. This establishes coincidence point and fixed point theorems as being direct outcomes of the main part. In
Section 4, we offer the necessary definitions and prove a common best proximity point theorem for complete metric spaces endowed with reflexive binary relations. Furthermore, in
Section 5, we illustrate the application of our main theorem in ordinary differential equations. Finally, we allocate
Section 6 to our conclusions.
2. Main Results
In this section, we initiate concepts of being -proximal for mappings, and Geraghty dominating of type for a pair of mappings . Indeed, we also provide a common best proximity theorem for such mappings.
Hereafter, for a metric space
with
, we employ the notations defined as follows:
Throughout this work, let denote a structure having the following five properties:
- (1)
X is a nonempty set;
- (2)
is a metric space;
- (3)
are functions with being a pair of nonempty subsets of X;
- (4)
are nonempty and ;
- (5)
X is endowed with a directed graph . Here, the set of vertices, denoted by , is X. In addition, the set of edges, denoted by , contains the diagonal of but excludes parallel edges.
It is worth providing some remarks at this moment that our results will certainly work for the case of undirected graphs. This is because every undirected graph can be treated as a directed graph with its set of edges being symmetric. In addition, it can be seen that every metric space is naturally equipped with a directed graph
such that
and
. For further details, we encourage the readers to investigate the prominent reference [
23].
Next, we give a notion of
as follows:
Definition 1. On , the pair is said to be Geraghty dominating of type if there exists such that for any withthe fact that implieswhere Example 1. Let equipped with the metric d given by Let and It is easy to see that .
Define mappings byfor all It suffices to show that our setting satisfies all the requirements of Definition 1.
- (i)
By the definitions of and , we obtain that is closed and . Additionally,
Define a mapping byThen it can be checked that Let such thatandIt follows that , , , and . Assume that . Then we have and . This implies that and . To obtain the inequality (1), notice that if or , then we are finished. So, assume that and . Thus, we have Therefore, the pair is Geraghty dominating of type .
The following lemma will prove useful in showing the main theorem.
Lemma 1. On , for any and any , Proof. Let
and
such that
Consider
Suppose, on the contrary, that
, i.e.,
. We have
By the property of , , which is a contradiction. Thus, . □
Next, we recall relevant definitions in the literature.
Definition 2 ([
18])
. Suppose we have a structure .- (i)
For any , is said to be a common best proximity point of the pair if We denote the set of common best proximity points of by .
- (ii)
For any , is said to be a coincidence point of the pair if We denote the set of coincidence points of by .
- (iii)
For any , is said to be a fixed point of α if We denote the set of fixed points of α by .
Definition 3 ([
22])
. On , we say that the pair commutes proximally if for any , Lemma 2. On , assume that the following two conditions hold:
- (1)
There exists ;
- (2)
commutes proximally.
Then, there exists such that and Proof. Let
. Then, we have
. Since
and
, we have
. So, there exists
such that
Consider
If
, then
. Furthermore, by (
2), we obtain
Thus,
.
For the inverse, suppose that
; by (
3) we have
. □
Lemma 3. On , suppose that and are sequences in such that all the following four conditions hold:
- (1)
for all
- (2)
and for all
- (3)
is Geraghty dominating of type ;
- (4)
for all .
Moreover, assume that and are subsequences of with for all , the sequences and converge to the same value, and has transitive property, i.e., for all , implies . Then, Proof. Let
and
be sequences in
satisfying
Due to (
4), we obtain that
From (
5), note that for all
,
and
Since
for all
, the Equations (
6), (
7), and the fact that
is Geraghty dominating of type
imply that there exists
such that for all
,
where
Now, for all
, define
Next, we shall prove that the sequence
is decreasing. Assume that
is not decreasing. Then there exists
such that
and
Put
in (
8); then we have
By assumption (
2),
for all
, so we have
. From the above inequality, we obtain
. Also, by the fact that
, we have
which is a contradiction. Therefore,
is a decreasing sequence. Since it is bounded below, we see that the sequence is convergent. To obtain that
suppose on the contrary that
. For each
, since
, we determine that
and
Letting
in (
8), we find that
which implies
. By the definition of
,
which is a contradiction. Thus, we obtain
Next, assume that
and
are subsequences of
such that for all
,
and there exists
such that
Now, suppose that
Since
and
satisfy the Equations (
6) and (
7), we obtain that
for each
. Since
for all
, and
has transitive property, we have
for all
. According to (
11) and the fact that
is Geraghty dominating of type
, we have
where
By using (
9) and (
10), we have
On the other hand, (
10) also implies that taking
in (
12) yields
By the definition of
, we conclude that
This is a contradiction. Therefore,
and
The proof is complete. □
Before we prove our main theorem, let us introduce other related definitions as follows:
Definition 4 ([
30])
. On , we state that α is -edge preserving with regard to if for any , implies . Definition 5 ([
23])
. Let X be endowed with a graph For any a function is said to be -continuous at if for each sequence in X with and for all In addition, we say that T is -continuous if it is -continuous at every point in X. Definition 6. On , the function β is said to be -proximal
if for any , and together imply .
The next lemma, which constitutes a result in the existing literature, will play a significant role in our main theorem (see for instance [
3,
4]).
Lemma 4. Suppose that is a sequence in a metric space . Furthermore, assume that there are subsequences and of together with such that for all , while is the tiniest number possible with If , then and converge to ϵ.
We are now ready to prove our main theorem as follows:
Theorem 1. On such that is a complete metric space, suppose that the following six conditions hold:
- (i)
is closed and ;
- (ii)
There is such that ;
- (iii)
α is β-edge preserving with regard to , and satisfies the transitivity property;
- (iv)
β is -proximal;
- (v)
is Geraghty dominating of type and commutes proximally;
- (vi)
At least one of the following conditions holds:
- (a)
for any , and α and β are -continuous;
- (b)
For all sequence in A such that and for all , there exists a subsequence of such that for each ,
Then, . Moreover, if we have for all , then has a unique common best proximity point.
Proof. Let
such that
. Since
, we obtain a sequence
in
satisfying
For each
,
implies
. So, for each
, there is an element
such that
Furthermore, by (
13) and (
14), we obtain that
Since
and
is
-edge preserving with regard to
, we have
. Continuing this process inductively, we obtain that
In the case that there exists
such that
, by (
13) and (
15), we determine that
Since
commutes proximally, we have
which implies
. Next, since
and
, there exists
such that
Again, because
commutes proximally, we have
Therefore,
. Since
and
, there exists
such that
Next, if assumption
holds, we have
. Because of (
17), (
18), and the fact that
is Geraghty dominating of type
, we have
According to Lemma 1, we obtain that
. At this point, all the assumptions in Lemma 2 hold. It follows from the proof of Lemma 2 that
Next, assume that assumption
is true. Since
is a sequence in
A such that
and
, there exists a subsequence
of
such that for all
,
Since
commutes proximally, we have
. Because
and
, there exists
such that
Note that by (
19) and (
20) we also have
Due to (
19), (
21), and the fact that
is Geraghty dominating of type
, we obtain
Again, by Lemma 1, we obtain
. Now, every assumption in Lemma 2 is satisfied so it is a consequence that
Now, we consider the case that
for all
. From (
13), (
14), (
16), and our assumptions, the first part of Lemma 3 implies that
Next, we claim that
is a Cauchy sequence. Suppose, on the contrary, that
is not a Cauchy sequence. Then there exist
together with subsequences
and
of
such that for all
,
and
In addition, for every
, we can choose the tiniest
satisfying (
23) so that
Hence, (
22) and Lemma 4 offer that
According to our assumptions and the above proof, all the hypotheses of Lemma 3 hold. As a result, we obtain that
which is a contradiction. Thence,
becomes a Cauchy sequence in the closed subset
of the complete metric space
X. Thus, there is
such that
Now, by (
15), using the fact that
is
-proximal and
commutes proximally, we determine that for each
,
Now, assume that assumption
is true. Due to (
24), (
25), and the
-continuity of
and
, we have
which implies that
. Since
and
, we have
and there exists
such that
By the assumption that
commutes proximally, we have
which means
. Since
and
, there exists
such that
By (
26) and (
27), we have
Since
, by assumption
, we have
. Because of (
28) and the fact that
is Geraghty dominating of type
, we also have
Lemma 1 yields
. Now, all conditions in Lemma 2 hold. It follows that
Next, assume that assumption
is true. Recall that
is a sequence in
A such that
and
for all
. Therefore, there exists a subsequence
of
such that for all
,
Because
commutes proximally, we have
, which yields
. Since
and
, there exists
such that
Note that by (
29) and (
30), we receive for each
,
It is clear that (
29), (
31), and the fact that
is Geraghty dominating of type
imply
So, Lemma 1 yields
. Now, all assumptions in Lemma 2 hold. It follows that
Finally, suppose that for all . We have to show that the set is a singleton. To this end, let . By assumption, we have and
Since
is Geraghty dominating of type
, we obtain that
Due to Lemma 1, the above observation suggests that . Thus, and the proof is complete. □
In the following section, we offer a supportive example as well as straightforward consequences of Theorem 1.
3. Example and Consequences
The succeeding example demonstrates the case in which Theorem 1 can be applied.
Example 2. Let equipped with the metric d given byfor any . It is well known that is a complete metric space. Next, let and It is easy to see that . Define mappings byfor all It suffices to show that our setting satisfies all the requirements of Theorem 1.
- (i)
By the definitions of and , we obtain that is closed and . Additionally,
- (ii)
There exists such that - (iii)
It is easy to check that α is β-edge preserving with regard to , and satisfies the transitivity property.
- (iv)
To see that β is -proximal, let such thatand . We have and . Consequently, , where and .
Thus, and . This implies and . Hence, β is -proximal.
- (v)
We will show that is Geraghty dominating of type and commutes proximally.
Define a mapping by Then, it can be checked that
Let such thatand It follows that , , , and .
Assume that . Then we have and . This implies that and . To obtain the inequality (1), notice that if or , then we are finished. So, assume that and . Thus, we have Therefore, the pair is Geraghty dominating of type .
Now, we will show that commutes proximally. Let such that Consequently, , where and . Thus,which means commutes proximally. - (vi)
We will prove that condition is true in our case. That is, for all , we have , and α and β are -continuous.
First, it is not hard to see that α and β are -continuous.
Second, let such that . Thus, Then, and . It can be deduced that . This means that there exists only one element . So, we have .
Finally, to see that is a singleton, let . We obtain and , where and As a consequence, and . Again, it can be deduced that . Therefore, . By Theorem 1, we determine that is a singleton. In fact, it is clear from the above argument that the point is the unique common best proximity point of .
We close this section by showing that the succeeding corollaries are consequences of our main results. To be more specific, we first investigate a special case of Theorem 1 when there is such that for each .
Corollary 1. On such that is a complete metric space, suppose that the following six conditions hold:
- (i)
is closed and ;
- (ii)
There is such that ;
- (iii)
α is β-edge preserving with regard to , and satisfies the transitivity property;
- (iv)
β is -proximal;
- (v)
commutes proximally, and there exists such that for any with we have , which implies that
- (vi)
At least one of the following conditions holds:
- (a)
for any , and α and β are -continuous;
- (b)
For any sequence in A such that and for all , there exists a subsequence of such that for each ,
Then, . Moreover, if we have for all , then has a unique common best proximity point.
Next, we consider another special case of the main theorem to obtain related results for coincidence points and fixed points. To start with, we investigate a particular situation that , which provides . Thus, we obtain the following corollary, which guarantees the existence and uniqueness of a coincidence point.
Corollary 2. On such that is a complete metric space, suppose that the following six conditions hold:
- (i)
;
- (ii)
There is such that ;
- (iii)
α is β-edge preserving with regard to , and satisfies the transitivity property;
- (iv)
β is -proximal;
- (v)
commutes, i.e., for all , and there exists such that for any , implies that - (vi)
At least one of the following conditions holds:
- (a)
for any , and α and β are -continuous;
- (b)
For all sequence in A such that and for all , there exists a subsequence of such that for each ,
Then, has a unique common fixed point.
Furthermore, in the following corollary, we can assert the existence and uniqueness of a fixed point when and is the identity function I.
Corollary 3. On such that is a complete metric space, suppose that the following four conditions hold:
- (i)
There is such that ;
- (ii)
α is I-edge preserving with regard to , and satisfies the transitivity property;
- (iii)
There exists such that for any , implies that - (iv)
At least one of the following conditions holds:
- (a)
for any , and α is -continuous;
- (b)
For any sequence in A such that and for all , there exists a subsequence of such that for each ,
Then, α has a unique fixed point.
In the next section, we affirm that our main results can be applied to the case of complete metric spaces equipped with reflexive binary relations.
4. Common Best Proximity Point Theorem for Reflexive Binary Relation ℜ
Here and subsequently, let us denote by a mathematical structure such that the following five properties hold:
- (1)
X is a nonempty set;
- (2)
is a metric space;
- (3)
are functions with being a pair of nonempty subsets of X;
- (4)
are nonempty and ;
- (5)
ℜ is a reflexive binary relation on
Now, let us introduce other relevant definitions as follows:
Definition 7. Suppose we have a structure .
- (i)
For any , α is said to be ℜ-continuous at if for each sequence in X with and for all . In addition, we say that α is ℜ-continuous if it is ℜ-continuous at every point in X.
- (ii)
β is said to be ℜ-proximal if for any , and together imply and .
- (iii)
α is said to be preserving with regard to ℜ if for any , implies .
- (iv)
ℜ is said to have a transitive property if for any , and imply .
At this moment, we are in a position to prove a common best proximity point theorem for complete metric spaces equipped with reflexive binary relations.
Theorem 2. On such that is a complete metric space, suppose that the following six conditions hold:
- (i)
is closed and ;
- (ii)
There is such that ;
- (iii)
α is β preserving with regard to ℜ, and ℜ satisfies the transitivity property;
- (iv)
β is ℜ-proximal;
- (v)
commutes proximally, and there exists such that for any with we have implies that - (vi)
At least one of the following conditions holds:
- (a)
for all , and α and β are ℜ-continuous;
- (b)
For any sequence in A such that and for all , there exists a subsequence of such that for each ,
Then . Moreover, if we have for all , then has a unique common best proximity point.
Proof. Let us consider a directed graph
such that
and
It is not hard to see that every condition in Theorem 1 is satisfied. □
To finish our work, we devote the last part of this paper to an application of our results in ordinary differential equations.
5. Application in Ordinary Differential Equations
For this present section, we provide an application in ordinary differential equations of Corollary 3. To begin with, suppose that
and consider a second-order differential equation such that
with two-point boundary conditions
where
is a continuous function.
The important point to note here is that the function
becomes an answer for (
32) if and only if it is a solution to the integral equation
where
is such that
Next, it is worth pointing out that a normed space
is complete. Therefore, the metric space
is also complete. Here, the metric
d is defined so that for all
,
In addition, we define a function
such that
According to our setting above, it can be verified that the existence of a fixed point of the function
F is equivalent to the existence of a function
satisfying (
32). In particular, we illustrate this observation as an advantage of our preceding result in the following theorem.
Theorem 3. Given , suppose that the following conditions (H1)–(H4) hold:
- (H1)
There exists with for each
- (H2)
For all and , - (H3)
For all and , - (H4)
For any and any with for each , it is satisfied thatwhere
Then, the boundary value problem (32) has a solution. Proof. We define a directed graph
, where
and
Recall that
is defined by the equation
Now, we will show that assumption
in Corollary 3 is fulfilled in our case. Notice that the condition (H
) suggests that for all
and
such that
, we obtain
Next, we define
such that
It can be checked that
. Now, for any
such that
, we have
Thus, assumption
in Corollary 3 holds. By assuming assumptions (H
)–(H
), all of the requirements of Corollary 3 are fulfilled. Consequently, there is a function
satisfying
. In other words, the boundary value problem (
32) has
as its solution. □