A convexity of functions on convex metric spaces of Takahashi and applications

Abstract

We quickly review and make some comments on the concept of convexity in metric spaces due to Takahashi. Then we introduce a concept of convex structure based convexity to functions on these spaces and refer to it as $W-$convexity. $W-$convex functions generalize convex functions on linear spaces. We discuss illustrative examples of (strict) $ W-$convex functions and dedicate the major part of this paper to proving a variety of properties that make them fit in very well with the classical theory of convex analysis. Finally, we apply some of our results to the metric projection problem and fixed point theory.