Blueprint for Brouwer’s Fixed Point Theorem

2.1

Given \(f\colon \Delta \to \Delta \) (where \(\Delta \) is triangulated), we construct a coloring of the triangulation.

Definition 2.1
#

Let \(\Delta \) be a simplex. Given an ordered list of its vertices, and a function \(f:\Delta \to \Delta \), the induced color of a point \(x\in \Delta \) is \(i=\min \{ j ~ |~ f(x)_j {\lt} x_j\} \).

Lemma 2.2
#

The coloring above is a Sperner coloring.

Apply the above to a triangulation of \(\Delta \) of diameter \({\lt}\epsilon \), to get a panchromatic triangle of diameter \(\epsilon \).

Lemma 2.3
#

For all \(\varepsilon {\gt}0\) exists \(\delta {\gt}0\), such that given a panchromatic simplex \(X\subseteq \Delta \) of a diameter \(\leq \delta \) then \(|f(x) - x| {\lt} \varepsilon ,\ \forall x \in X\).

Proof

By compactness, \(f\) is uniformly continuous in \(\Delta \). Then for all \(\frac{\varepsilon }{2n}{\gt}0\) there exists \(\delta _0{\gt}0\) such that \(diam(f(X)) {\lt} \frac{\varepsilon }{2n}\). We define \(\delta :=\min (\delta _0,\frac{\varepsilon }{4n})\), that preserves the properties of \(\delta \).
Let \(p_0, \ldots , p_n\) be the vertices of \(X\). Then, since \(X\) is panchromatic, for each \(i = 0,\ldots ,n-1\), \(f(p_i)_i {\lt} (p_i)_i\) and \(f(p_{i+1})_i \geq (p_{i+1})_i\). Then, for all \(x \in X\),

\[ f(x)_i \leq f(p_i)_i + diam(f(X)) {\lt} (p_i)_i + diam(f(X)) \leq (x)_i + \delta + diam(f(X)) \]

and

\[ f(x)_i \geq f(p_{i+1})_i - diam(f(X)) \geq (p_{i+1})_i - diam(f(X)) \geq (x)_i - \delta - diam(f(X)) \]

Putting them together,

\[ |f(x)_i - (x)_i| \leq \delta + diam(f(X)),\ \ i\in \{ 0,...,n-1\} \]

Therefore, for all \(x \in X\),

\[ |f(x)_n - (x)_n| = |(1 - f(x)_0 - \ldots - f(x)_{n-1}) - (1 - (x)_0 - \ldots - (x)_{n-1})| = \]
\[ = |((x)_0 - f(x)_0) + \ldots + ((x)_n - f(x)_n)| \leq \]
\[ \leq |(x)_0 - f(x)_0| + \ldots + |(x)_n - f(x)_n| \leq (n-1)(\delta + diam(f(X))) \]


Finally, for all \(x \in X\),

\[ |f(x) - x| = \sqrt{(f(x)_0 - (x)_0)^2 + \ldots + (f(x)_{n-1} - (x)_{n-1})^2 + (f(x)_n - (x)_n)^2} \]
\[ \leq \sqrt{(1 + \ldots + 1 + (n - 1)^2)(\delta + diam(f(X))^2} = \]
\[ = \sqrt{n(n-1)}(\delta + diam(f(X)) {\lt} \frac{\varepsilon }{n}\sqrt{n(n-1)} {\lt} \varepsilon \Longleftrightarrow |f(x)-x|{\lt}\varepsilon \]

\( \)

Lemma 2.4
#

\(f\colon X \to X\) continuous and \(X\) compact metric space. Suppose that \(\forall \epsilon {\gt}0\), there exists \(x\in X\) such that \(d(f(x),x) {\lt} \epsilon \). Then \(f\) has a fixed point.

Proof

Using the epsilons property, we can construct a sequance verifying the following inequality

\[ \left|f(x_n)-x_n\right|\leq \frac{1}{n} \]

Because of the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem, we know there exists a convergent subsequance \( x_{k_n} \) of \( x_n \) satisfying,

\[ \left|f(x_{n_k})-x_{n_k}\right|\leq \frac{1}{n_k} \]

Applying the limits in the inequality, we obtain the equality

\[ \left|\lim _{x\to \infty } f(x_{n_k})-x\right|\leq 0\Longleftrightarrow \lim _{x\to \infty } f(x_{n_k})-x = 0\Longleftrightarrow \lim _{x\to \infty } f(x_{n_k}) = x \]

Using the continuity property of limits we can conclude,

\[ f(x)=f\left(\lim _{x\to \infty } x_{n_k}\right)=\lim _{x\to \infty } f(x_{n_k})=x \]

\( \)

Now we apply Sperner’s lemma to deduce that there is a panchromatic face in the subdivision.

Definition 2.5
#

The baricenter of points \(p_1, \dots , p_k\) is \(B(p_1, \dots , p_k)= \frac{1}{k}\sum _{i=1}^k p_i\)

Definition 2.6
#

Let \(S\subseteq \mathbb {R}^n\) be a \(n\)-dimensional simplex with barycentric coordinates \(x_0,\ldots ,x_n\). The barycentric subdivison is a map form permutations of the \(n+1\) vertices of \(S\) to \(n\)-dimensional simplexes defined as follows

\[ (p_0, p_1, \dots , p_n) \mapsto Simplex(B(p_0), B(p_0,p_1), \dots , B(p_0,p_1,\dots , p_n)) \]

See end of https://github.com/leanprover-community/mathlib/blob/sperner-again/src/combinatorics/simplicial_complex/subdivision.lean

Lemma 2.7
#

Let \(S\) be a \(k\)-dimensional simplex with vertices \(v_0, \dots , v_k\). The diameter of \(S\) \( Diam(S)= \max _{x,y\in S} |x-y|\) equals \(\max |v_i - v_j|\).

Proof

Since \(v_i, v_j \in S\), we have \(Diam(S) \geq \max |v_i - v_j|\).

Let \(l\max |v_i - v_j|\), and for each vertex consider the closed ball centered at \(v_i\) and radius \(l\).

\[ B_l(v_i) = \{ x : |x-v_i|\leq l\} . \]

Since \(B_l(v_i)\) is convex, and it contains every vertex of \(S\), we have \(|x-v_i|\leq l\) for all \(x\in S\).

Finally we show \(|x-y|\leq l\) for all \(x, y\in S\). Given \(x\in S\), \(B_l(x)\) contains all vertices of \(S\), and since \(B_l(x)\) is convex, it contains any \(y\in S\). Therefore \(|x-y|\leq l\) for all \(x, y\in S\). This is \(diam(S)\leq l\).

Lemma 2.8
#

Let \(\hat S = B(v_0,v_1,\dots , v_k)\) be the barycenter of \(S\). We bound the distance of any vertex \(v_i\) of \(S\) to \(\hat S\). Given a simplex \(S\) of diameter \(D\), its barycentric subdivision has diameter at most \(\frac{n}{n+1}D\)

Proof

The dinstance of any vertex of \(S\) to its barycenter is bounded by

\[ |v_i - \hat S | = | v_i - \sum _{k=0}^k \frac{1}{n+1}v_k| \leq \sum _{t=0}^k \frac{1}{k+1}|v_i - v_t| \leq \frac{1}{n+1} D. \]

Therefore, the closed ball centered at \(\hat S\), of radius \(\frac{p}{p+1}D\), contains the vertices of \(S\), by convexity it contains \(S\).

Finally we proof the result by strong induction, for \(k=0\) the result is trivial. If \(s\) and \(s'\) are faces of \(S\) such that \(s\) is a proper face of \(s'\),

\[ |\hat s -\hat s'| \leq (\frac{k}{k+1})diam(S). \]

Lemma 2.9
#

For all \(\epsilon {\gt}0\), there exists a subdivision of \(\Delta \) of diameter \({\lt}\epsilon \).

Proof