| Abstract: | After proving a generalized version of Garkavi's theorem, we give as applications proofs of existence results on best approximation by polynomials, and fractional linear and holomorphic operators between Banach spaces. We also obtain theorems on best approximation by some types of rational functions defined in open subsets of Banach spaces. By considering a natural non-normable distance we prove that every mapping bounded on the bounded subsets of a Banach space has best approximation by polynomials of degree less than or equal to a fixed natural number n. |
