About the definition of directional derivative in the clousure of an open set

calculusderivativesgeneral-topologynormed-spacesvector analysis

Let be $X$ a normed space and thus we prove that if $x_0\in\overset{\circ}Y\subseteq X$ then for any $\vec v\in X$ such that $\lVert\vec v\lVert=1$ the set
$$
V:=\{h\in\Bbb R:(x_0+h\vec v)\in\overset{\circ}Y\}
$$

is a not empty open set that has $0$ as a cluster point. So first of all we observe that if $x_0\in\overset{\circ}Y$ then $0\in V$ and thus it is not empty. Anyway if $x_0\in\overset{\circ}Y$ then there exists $\delta>0$ such that $B(x_0,\delta)\subseteq\overset{\circ} Y$ and thus $(x_0+h\vec v)\in \overset{\circ}Y$ for any $h\in(-\delta,\delta)$ so that $0$ is a cluster point of $V$. Then if $(x_0+h\vec v)\in\overset{\circ}Y$ there exists $\delta>0$ such that $B(x_0+h\vec v,\delta)\subseteq\overset{\circ}Y$ and thus $(x_0+t\vec v)\in\overset{\circ}Y$ for any $t\in(h-\delta,h+\delta)$ so that $(h-\delta,h+\delta)\subseteq V$ and thus this it is open. Now if $\overset{\circ}Y$ is not empty and so that for any $x_0\in\overset{\circ}Y$ there exists $\delta>0$ such that $B(x_0,\delta)\subseteq\overset{\circ}Y$ then $V\neq\emptyset$ for any $\vec v\in V$ such that $\lVert\vec v\lVert=1$ (indeed an open ball is a convex set) and so there exist at least a net in $V$ converging to $0$ so that if $f:Y\rightarrow\Bbb R^n$ is a function then the limit
$$
\lim_{h\rightarrow 0}\frac{f(x_0+h\vec v)-f(x)}h
$$

is well defined and we call it the deriviative of $f$ in the direction $\vec v$. Anyway if $x_0\notin\overset{\circ}Y$ it could happen that one of the limits
$$
\lim_{h\rightarrow 0^+}\frac{f(x_0+h\vec v)-f(x)}h\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\lim_{h\rightarrow 0^-}\frac{f(x_0+h\vec v)-f(x)}h
$$

could be defined and we can think to exted the notion of directional derivative: e.g. the upper half space $H^k:=\{x\in\Bbb R^k:x_k\ge0\}$ is closed and if $x_0\in\partial H^k=\{x\in\Bbb R^k:x_k=0\}$ the limit
$$
\lim_{h\rightarrow 0^+}\frac{f(x_0+h\vec e_k)-f(x)}h
$$

is well defined for any function $f$ whose domain is the upper half space. So I ask if $x_0$ is a cluster point of $\overset{\circ}Y$ $\Biggl($and thus $x_0\in\overline{\overset{\circ\,}Y}\Biggl)$ then at least for one $\vec v\in X$ such that $\lVert\vec v\lVert=1$ the set $V$ as above defined is a not empty open set that has $0$ as cluster point so that it is possible to exted the notion of directional derivative in the clousure of an open set. So could someone help me, please?

Best Answer

It is not true that $V$ will always be non-empty.

We should note that the vector $\vec{v}$ was chosen first, then $V$ is a subset of the real numbers such that $x_0+\vec{v}V \subset \mathring{Y}$. It is a linear crossection of a particular direction of $Y$, particularly in the direction of $\vec{v}$.

To construct a counterexample for any $\vec{v}$ consider the set of points in $\mathbb{R}^2$ satisfying $$(x, y) \in \mathring{Y} \iff x>0 \wedge 0<y<x^2.$$ (Convince yourself that this is an open set.)

The limit point we will consider is $(0, 0)$. Take any vector $\vec{v}$. The set $V$ is either empty or a half infinite open interval that does not contain $0$. It is clear that $0$ is not a cluster point of any $V$.

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