Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2009
For a set E in a metric space X the index of non-separability is β(E) = inf{r > 0: E is covered by a countable-family of balls of radius less than r}.
Now, for a set-valued mapping Φ from a topological space A into subsets of a metric space X we say that Φ is β upper semi-continuous at t ∈ A if given ε > 0 there exists a neighbourhood U of t such that β(Φ(U)) < ε. In this paper we show that if the subdifferential mapping of a continuous convex function Φ is β upper semi-continuous on a dense subset of its domain then Φ is Fréchet differentiable on a dense Gδ subset of its domain. We also show that a Banach space is Asplund if and only if every weak* compact subset has weak* slices whose index of non-separability is arbitrarily small.