Past exam of the fixed point methods for nonlinear partial differential equations course of the University of Oxford / 2008 / 1 / a

Here “contractive” means strictly distance-decreasing: $\boxed{d(Tx,Ty)<d(x,y)\text{ whenever }x\ne y}$. “Strongly contractive” means a contraction mapping with one uniform constant $q\in [0,1)$ satisfying $\boxed{d(Tx,Ty)\le qd(x,y)\text{ for all }x,y\in M}$.

If distinct $p,q$ were both fixed points, strict decrease would give $d(p,q)=d(Tp,Tq)<d(p,q)$, a contradiction. Thus there is at most one fixed point. This proves uniqueness if a fixed point exists; the pointwise strict inequality alone does not assert existence.