Ergodic Theory and Averaging Iterations

Abstract

Suppose X is a Banach space and T a continuous linear operator on X. The significance of the asymptotic convergence of T for the approximate solution of the equation (I - T)x = f by means of the Picard iterations was clearly shown in Browder's and Petryshyn's paper [1], The results of [1] have stimulated further investigation of the Picard, and more generally, averaging iterations for the solution of linear and nonlinear functional equations [2; 3; 4; 8; 9]. Kwon and Redheffer [8] analyzed the Picard iteration under the mildest possible condition on T, namely that T be continuous and linear on a normed (not necessarily complete) space X. The results of [8] (still waiting to be extended for the averaging iterations) seem to give the most complete story of the Picard iterations for the linear case. Only when T is subject to some further restrictions, such as asymptotic 4-boundedness and asymptotic A -regularity, one can agree with Dotson [4] that the iterative solution of linear functional equations is a special case of mean ergodic theory for affine operators. This thesis is rather convincingly demonstrated by results of De Figueiredo and Karlovitz [2], and Dotson [3], and most of all by Dotson's recent paper [4], in which the results of [1; 2; 3] are elegantly subsumed under the afrine mean ergodic theorem of Eberlein-Dotson.