Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-methods-of-applied-functional-analysis-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2009/b/4/c/solution

For a uniform contraction from a comparison function on a bounded set, the closed set is complete and has diameter at most . Suppose first . The limit condition supplies and such that for . On the remaining compact interval , if nonempty, the continuous ratio attains a maximum , since it is strictly below one at every point. Thus there is one with for every distance arising in .
Consequently throughout . Banach's theorem applies and gives a unique fixed point in . No linear structure or compactness of the ball is used; the compact object in the argument is only the scalar distance interval. If the closed ball is the singleton at radius zero, its self-map fixes that point. The estimate on the ratio near zero is what prevents the compact-interval supremum argument from approaching one at its missing endpoint.

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