Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2009
We prove that if f is a real valued lower semicontinuous function on a Banach space X, for which there exist a > 0 and b ∈ ℝ such that f(x) ≥ 2a∥x∥ + b, x ∈ X, and if X has the Radon-Nikody´m property, then for every Ε > 0 there exists a real function φ X such that φ is Fréchet differentiable, ∥φ∥∞ < Ε, ∥φ′∥∞ < Ε, φ′ is weakly continuous and f + φ attains a minimum on X. In addition, if we assume that the norm in X is β-smooth, we can take the function φ = g1 + g2 where g1 is radial and β-smooth, g2 is Fréchet differentiable, ∥g1∥∞ < Ε, ∥g2∥∞ < Ε, ∥g′1∥∞ < Ε, ∥g′1∥∞ < Ε, g′2 is weakly continuous and f + g1 + g2 attains a minimum on X.