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A monotone operator is maximal when its graph has no proper enlargement that is still monotone. In Euclidean or Hilbert space, its resolvent of a monotone operator is single-valued and everywhere defined for every positive step. Subdifferentials of proper lower semicontinuous convex functions are fundamental examples.

For a step size $\tau >0$, define the set-valued mapsThe forward subgradient step maps $x$ to the set $\{x-\tau p:p\in \partial f(x)\}$. If $f$ is differentiable this is the explicit gradient step $x-\tau \nabla f(x)$. The backward subgradient step consists of the $y$ satisfying $x-y\in \tau \partial f(y)$, an implicit step for the subgradient flow. It is the resolvent of a monotone operator associated with $\partial f$.

Suppose $y_1,y_2\in B_{\tau f}(x)$. Then $p_i=(x-y_i)/\tau \in \partial f(y_i)$. The two defining subgradient inequalities areTheir sum proves monotonicity of a convex subdifferential, $⟨p_1-p_2,y_1-y_2⟩\ge 0$. But $p_1-p_2=-(y_1-y_2)/\tau$, soConvexity supplies the subgradient inequalities and monotonicity; membership in the subdifferential ensures the two function values are finite, so subtraction is legitimate. Positivity of $\tau$ supplies the decisive sign. Properness rules out the identically infinite and negative-infinity pathologies in the overall setting, but lower semicontinuity is not needed for this at-most-one argument. Its role is in existence, proved next. The backward step cannot have two values, though uniqueness alone has not yet shown its domain is all of ${\mathbb{R}}^n$.

Use the conventionThis proximal map is also the resolvent of a monotone operator $(I+\tau \partial f{)}^{-1}$. A proper lower semicontinuous convex function has an affine minorant, so the quadratic term makes this minimization coercive and strongly convex. A unique minimizer exists for every $x$. Its subgradient optimality condition isThe Moreau–Yosida regularisation is $f_{\tau }=f\square g^{\tau }$. The conjugate of an infimal convolution and the quadratic conjugate giveThe factor $\tau$ here is essential. Apply subgradient inversion under convex conjugacy, followed by the subdifferential sum rule with the everywhere differentiable quadratic:The last equivalence is precisely the unique proximal minimization condition. ThusThis proves both existence and uniqueness of the subgradient, rather than only identifying a possible element. The finite convex function $f_{\tau }$ is therefore differentiable, with $\nabla f_{\tau }=(I-P_{\tau })/\tau$, the gradient of a Moreau envelope.

For completeness, monotonicity of $\partial f$ applied to the two proximal conditions givesHence $P_{\tau }$ is firmly nonexpansive. Expanding the same inequality shows that $I-P_{\tau }$ is firmly nonexpansive too. In particular, $\nabla f_{\tau }$ is $1/\tau$-Lipschitz continuous. None of this requires a bounded effective domain; the result applies to the next example as well.

For a proper convex function $E$ that is lower semicontinuous on a Hilbert space, its proximal operator at scale $\gamma >0$ isThe minimizer is unique because the objective is strongly convex; existence follows from the closed proper convex functional and the coercive quadratic, using an affine lower bound. The subgradient optimality condition is $0\in x-z+\gamma \partial E(x)$, which is exactly the displayed resolvent of a monotone operator relation. Setting $\gamma =1$ gives the unscaled proximity or resolvent operator requested here. This is a nonlinear resolvent of the subdifferential, distinct from the spectral resolvent of a linear operator.