On the Newton-Kantorovich theorem
Résumé
The Newton–Kantorovich theorem enjoys a special status, as it is both a fundamental result in Numerical Analysis, e.g., for providing an iterative method for computing the zeros of polynomials or of systems of nonlinear equations, and a fundamental result in Nonlinear Functional Analysis, e.g., for establishing that a nonlinear equation in an infinite-dimensional function space has a solution. Yet its detailed proof in full generality is not easy to locate in the literature.
The purpose of this article, which is partly expository in nature, is to carefully revisit this theorem, by means of a two-tier approach.
First, we give a detailed, and essentially self-contained, account of the classical proof of this theorem, which essentially relies on careful estimates based on the integral form of the mean value theorem for functions of class C^1 with values in a Banach space, and on the so-called majorant method. Our treatment also includes a careful discussion of the often overlooked uniqueness issue. An example of a nonlinear two-point boundary value problem is also given that illustrates the power of this theorem for establishing an existence theorem when other methods of nonlinear functional analysis cannot be used.
Second, we give a new version of this theorem, the assumptions of which involve only one constant instead of three constants in its classical version and the proof of which is substantially simpler as it altogether avoids the majorant method. For these reasons, this new version, which captures all the basic features of the classical version could be considered as a good alternative to the classical Newton–Kantorovich theorem.