<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE article  PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "http://dtd.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd"><article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en" article-type="research article"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">JAMP</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics</journal-title></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="epub">2327-4352</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Scientific Research Publishing</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.4236/jamp.2019.75078</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">JAMP-92709</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Articles</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="Discipline-v2"><subject>Physics&amp;Mathematics</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>
 
 
  &lt;i&gt;N&lt;/i&gt;-Order Fixed Point Theory for N-Order Generalized Meir-Keeler Type Contraction in Partially Ordered Metric Spaces
 
</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Shiyun</surname><given-names>Wang</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref><xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1"><sup>*</sup></xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Jingwen</surname><given-names>Zhang</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref></contrib></contrib-group><aff id="aff1"><addr-line>Department of Science, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang, China</addr-line></aff><pub-date pub-type="epub"><day>06</day><month>05</month><year>2019</year></pub-date><volume>07</volume><issue>05</issue><fpage>1174</fpage><lpage>1184</lpage><history><date date-type="received"><day>26,</day>	<month>April</month>	<year>2019</year></date><date date-type="rev-recd"><day>26,</day>	<month>May</month>	<year>2019</year>	</date><date date-type="accepted"><day>29,</day>	<month>May</month>	<year>2019</year></date></history><permissions><copyright-statement>&#169; Copyright  2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. </copyright-statement><copyright-year>2014</copyright-year><license><license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</license-p></license></permissions><abstract><p>
 
 
  This paper concerns 
  N
  -order fixed point theory in partially ordered metric spaces. For the sake of simplicity, we start our investigations with the tripled case. We define tripled generalized Meir-Keeler type contraction which extends the definition of [Bessem Samet, Coupled fixed point theorems for a generalized Meir-Keeler contraction in partially ordered metric spaces, Nonlinear Anal. 72 (2010), 4508-4517]. We then discuss the existence and uniqueness of tripled fixed point theorems in partially ordered metric spaces. For general cases, we generalized our results to the 
  N
  -order case. The results will promote the study of 
  N
  -order fixed point theory.
 
</p></abstract><kwd-group><kwd>Tripled Fixed Point</kwd><kwd> Meir-Keeler Type Contraction</kwd><kwd> Partially Ordered Set</kwd><kwd> &lt;i&gt;N&lt;/i&gt;-Order Fixed Point</kwd></kwd-group></article-meta></front><body><sec id="s1"><title>1. Introduction and Preliminaries</title><p>Banach contraction principle [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref1">1</xref>] is classical and powerful in fixed point theory. It has been widely generalized (see [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref2">2</xref>] [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref3">3</xref>] [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref4">4</xref>] and others). Recently, fixed point theory in partially ordered metric spaces has been presented by many scholars: Ran and Reurings [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref5">5</xref>] , Agarwal et al. [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref6">6</xref>] , Bhsakar and Lakshmikantham [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref7">7</xref>] , Samet [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref8">8</xref>] , Berinde and Borcut [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref9">9</xref>] , Amini-Harandi [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref10">10</xref>] , etc., considered some coupled and tripled fixed point theorems. For more fixed point theorems in partially ordered metric spaces, one can refer to [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref11">11</xref>] [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref12">12</xref>] [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref13">13</xref>] and others.</p><p>This paper focuses on the tripled and N-order fixed point theory. For convenience, we denote N + = { 1,2, ⋯ , n , ⋯ } . Let ( X , ≤ , d ) denote a partially ordered set ( X , ≤ ) endowed a metric d (i.e., ( X , d ) is a metric space). Our work is carried out on the following two preliminaries: a result about fixed point in partially ordered metric space in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref6">6</xref>] and a definition of generally Meir-Keeler type function for the case of coupled fixed points in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref8">8</xref>] .</p><p>Lemma 1.1 ( [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref6">6</xref>] ). Let ( X , ≤ , d ) be a partially ordered metric space and suppose the metric space ( X , d ) is complete. Assume there is a nondecreasing function φ : [ 0, ∞ ) → [ 0, ∞ ) with φ n ( t ) → 0 as n → ∞ for each t &gt; 0 . If f : X → X is a nondecreasing mapping with</p><p>d ( f ( x ) , f ( y ) ) ≤ φ ( d ( x , y ) ) , ∀ x ≥ y .</p><p>Assume that either</p><p>1) f is continuous or,</p><p>2) If a nondecreasing sequence x n → x , then x n ≤ x , ∀ n ∈ N + .</p><p>If x 0 ∈ X with x 0 ≤ f ( x 0 ) then f has a fixed point. If for each x , y ∈ X , there exists z ∈ X which is comparable to x and y, then the fixed point of f is unique.</p><p>Definition 1 ( [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref8">8</xref>] ) Let ( X , ≤ , d ) be a partially ordered metric space and F : X &#215; X → X be a mapping. F is called generalized Meir-Keeler type function if for all ε &gt; 0 there exists δ ( ε ) &gt; 0 such that</p><p>x ≥ u , y ≤ v , ε ≤ 1 2 ( d ( x , u ) + d ( y , v ) ) &lt; ε + δ ( ε ) ⇒ d ( F ( x , y ) , F ( u , v ) ) &lt; ε . (1.1)</p><p>Let ( X , ≤ ) be a partially ordered set with a metric d on X, M = X &#215; X &#215; X and F : M → X be a given mapping. Let ≼ be the partial order on M : ( x , y , z ) ≼ ( u , v , w ) ⇔ x ≤ u , y ≤ v , z ≤ w . We employ the notion of tripled fixed point introduced by Samet and Vetro which is investigated by Amini-Harandi [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref10">10</xref>] .</p><p>Definition 2 ( [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref11">11</xref>] ) An element x , y , z ∈ X is called a tripled fixed point of F : M → X if</p><p>F ( x , y , z ) = x , F ( y , z , x ) = y , F ( z , y , x ) = z .</p><p>In this paper, we first define N-order generalized Meir-Keeler type contraction by adding some parameters (see Definition 3 and Definition 5), which is an extension of Definition 1. Then we use a simple approach introduced by [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref10">10</xref>] to discuss N-order fixed point theorems. We start our discussions with the tripled case. Section 2 devotes to tripled fixed point theorems. Section 3 devotes to N-order fixed point theory. Section 4 gives two examples to illustrate the results obtained in Section 2.</p></sec><sec id="s2"><title>2. Tripled Fixed Point Theory</title><p>Recalling that ( X , ≤ , d ) is a partially ordered set with a metric d on X and M = X &#215; X &#215; X . Let ρ be the metric and ≼ be the partially order on M . For each ( x , y , z ) , ( u , v , w ) ∈ M , we define</p><p>ρ ( ( x , y , z ) , ( u , v , w ) ) = d ( x , u ) + d ( y , v ) + d ( z , w )</p><p>( x , y , z ) ≼ ( u , v , w ) ⇔ x ≤ u , y ≤ v , z ≤ w</p><p>and</p><p>( x , y , z ) ≺ ( u , v , w ) ⇔ at   least   one   of   the   inequalities     x &lt; u , y &lt; v     and     z &lt; w     hold   .</p><p>Now, we define tripled generalized Meir-Keeler type contraction which is a useful tool for the following theorems in this section.</p><p>Definition 3 Let ( X , ≤ , d ) be a partially ordered metric space and F : M → X be a mapping. F is called a tripled generalized Meir-Keeler type contraction if for all ε &gt; 0 there exists δ ( ε ) &gt; 0 such that</p><p>( x , y , z ) ≼ ( u , v , w ) , ε ≤ 1 3 [ l d ( x , u ) + k d ( y , v ) + j d ( z , w ) ] &lt; ε + δ ( ε ) ⇒ d ( F ( x , y , z ) , F ( u , v , w ) ) &lt; ε (2.1)</p><p>where l , k , j are constants with 0 &lt; l + k + j &lt; 3 .</p><p>Theorem 2.1 Let ( X , ≤ , d ) be a partially ordered metric space. Let l , k , j be the given constants with 0 &lt; l + k + j &lt; 3 . If F : M → X is a tripled generalized Meir-Keeler contraction mapping, then</p><p>d ( F ( x , y , z ) , F ( u , v , w ) ) &lt; 1 3 [ l d ( x , u ) + k d ( y , v ) + j d ( z , w ) ]</p><p>for all ( x , y , z ) ≺ ( u , v , w ) .</p><p>Proof. Let ( x , y , z ) , ( u , v , w ) ∈ M such that ( x , y , z ) ≺ ( u , v , w ) . Then it follows that</p><p>1 3 [ l d ( x , u ) + k d ( y , v ) + j d ( z , w ) ] &gt; 0.</p><p>Setting</p><p>ε = 1 3 [ l d ( x , u ) + k d ( y , v ) + j d ( z , w ) ] ,</p><p>we have</p><p>0 &lt; ε = 1 3 [ l d ( x , u ) + k d ( y , v ) + j d ( z , w ) ] &lt; ε + δ ( ε ) .</p><p>By F : M → X being a tripled generalized Meir-Keeler type contraction, then</p><p>d ( F ( x , y , z ) , F ( u , v , w ) ) &lt; ε = 1 3 [ l d ( x , u ) + k d ( y , v ) + j d ( z , w ) ] . □</p><p>Let F : M → X be a mapping. We say F is nondecreasing in each of its variables if</p><p>x 1 , x 2 ∈ X ,       x 1 &lt; x 2 ⇒ F ( x 1 , y , z ) &lt; F ( x 2 , y , z ) , ∀ y , z ∈ X ,</p><p>y 1 , y 2 ∈ X ,       y 1 &lt; y 2 ⇒ F ( x , y 1 , z ) &lt; F ( x , y 2 , z ) , ∀ x , z ∈ X ,</p><p>and</p><p>z 1 , z 2 ∈ X ,       z 1 &lt; z 2 ⇒ F ( x , y , z 1 ) &lt; F ( x , y , z 2 ) , ∀ x , y ∈ X .</p><p>By the monotone property of F, we can get</p><p>( x , y , z ) , ( u , v , w ) ∈ M ,       ( x , y , z ) ≺ ( u , v , w ) ⇒ F ( x , y , z ) &lt; F ( u , v , w ) . (2.2)</p><p>For all n ∈ N + , n &gt; 1 , we define:</p><p>F n ( x , y , z ) = F ( F n − 1 ( x , y , z ) , F n − 1 ( y , z , x ) , F n − 1 ( z , x , y ) ) (2.3)</p><p>with F 1 = F .</p><p>In order to investigate the tripled fixed point of F, we introduce a mapping T : M → M which is defined by</p><p>T ( x , y , z ) = ( F ( x , y , z ) , F ( y , z , x ) , F ( z , x , y ) ) . (2.4)</p><p>Obviously, by the definition of ρ , we have</p><p>ρ ( T ( x , y , z ) , T ( u , v , w ) ) = d ( F ( x , y , z ) , F ( u , v , w ) ) + d ( F ( y , z , x ) , F ( v , w , u ) )       + d ( F ( z , x , y ) , F ( w , u , v ) ) . (2.5)</p><p>Simultaneously, by (2.3) and (2.4), we have</p><p>T n ( x , y , z ) = ( F n ( x , y , z ) , F n ( y , z , x ) , F n ( z , x , y ) )</p><p>with T 1 = T , and we have</p><p>F n ( x , y , z ) = F ( T n − 1 ( x , y , z ) ) .</p><p>Theorem 2.2 Let ( X , ≤ , d ) be a partially ordered metric space and l , k , j be the given constants with 0 &lt; l + k + j &lt; 3 . Let F : M → X be nondecreasing in each of its variables and be a tripled generalized Meir-Keeler type contraction. There exist ( x , y , z ) , ( u , v , w ) ∈ M with ( x , y , z ) ≺ ( u , v , w ) . Then, for n ∈ N + , we have</p><p>1) T n ( x , y , z ) ≺ T n ( u , v , w ) ;</p><p>2) ρ ( T n + 1 ( x , y , z ) , T n + 1 ( u , v , w ) ) &lt; ρ ( T n ( x , y , z ) , T n ( u , v , w ) ) ;</p><p>3) ρ ( T n ( x , y , z ) , T n ( u , v , w ) ) → 0, n → ∞ .</p><p>Proof. We first prove 1). Since ( x , y , z ) ≺ ( u , v , w ) , due to the monotone property of F and (2.2), we have F ( x , y , z ) &lt; F ( u , v , w ) , F ( y , z , x ) &lt; F ( v , w , u ) and F ( z , x , y ) &lt; F ( w , u , v ) . By T 1 = T and (2.4), 1) holds for n = 1 . Now we assume 1) holds for n ∈ N + , i.e.</p><p>( F n ( x , y , z ) , F n ( y , z , x ) , F n ( z , x , y ) ) = T n ( x , y , z ) ≺ T n ( u , v , w ) = ( F n ( u , v , w ) , F n ( v , w , u ) , F n ( w , u , v ) ) .</p><p>Then, we obtain</p><p>F ( F n ( x , y , z ) , F n ( y , z , x ) , F n ( z , x , y ) ) &lt; F ( F n ( u , v , w ) , F n ( v , w , u ) , F n ( w , u , v ) )</p><p>which means F n + 1 ( x , y , z ) &lt; F n + 1 ( u , v , w ) . Using the same strategy, we have F n + 1 ( y , z , x ) &lt; F n + 1 ( v , w , u ) and F n + 1 ( z , x , y ) &lt; F n + 1 ( w , u , v ) . Hence we have T n + 1 ( x , y , z ) ≺ T n + 1 ( u , v , w ) , that is, 1) holds for n + 1 . Simultaneously, we can also obtain that T n ( y , z , x ) ≺ T n ( v , w , u ) and T n ( z , x , y ) ≺ T n ( w , u , v ) .</p><p>Now, we prove 2). We consider</p><p>ρ ( T n + 1 ( x , y , z ) , T n + 1 ( u , v , w ) ) = d ( F n + 1 ( x , y , z ) , F n + 1 ( u , v , w ) ) + d ( F n + 1 ( y , z , x ) , F n + 1 ( v , w , u ) )       + d ( F n + 1 ( z , x , y ) , F n + 1 ( w , u , v ) ) .</p><p>It follows from Theorem 2.1 and 1) that</p><p>d ( F n + 1 ( x , y , z ) , F n + 1 ( u , v , w ) ) = d ( F ( T n ( x , y , z ) ) , F ( T n ( u , v , w ) ) ) &lt; 1 3 [ l d ( F n ( x , y , z ) , F n ( u , v , w ) ) + k d ( F n ( y , z , x ) , F n ( v , w , u ) )       + j d ( F n ( z , x , y ) , F n ( w , u , v ) ) ] ,</p><p>d ( F n + 1 ( y , z , x ) , F n + 1 ( v , w , u ) ) = d ( F ( T n ( y , z , x ) ) , F ( T n ( v , w , u ) ) ) &lt; 1 3 [ l d ( F n ( y , z , x ) , F n ( v , w , u ) ) + k d ( F n ( z , x , y ) , F n ( w , u , v ) )       + j d ( F n ( x , y , z ) , F n ( u , v , w ) ) ]</p><p>and</p><p>d ( F n + 1 ( z , x , y ) , F n + 1 ( w , u , v ) ) = d ( F ( T n ( z , x , y ) ) , F ( T n ( w , u , v ) ) ) &lt; 1 3 [ l d ( F n ( z , x , y ) , F n ( w , u , v ) ) + k d ( F n ( x , y , z ) , F n ( u , v , w ) )         + j d ( F n ( y , z , x ) , F n ( v , w , u ) ) ] .</p><p>Thus,</p><p>ρ ( T n + 1 ( x , y , z ) , T n + 1 ( u , v , w ) ) &lt; 1 3 ( l + k + j ) [ d ( F n ( x , y , z ) , F n ( u , v , w ) ) + d ( F n ( y , z , x ) , F n ( v , w , u ) )         + d ( F n ( z , x , y ) , F n ( w , u , v ) ) ] &lt; ρ ( T n ( x , y , z ) , T n ( u , v , w ) ) .</p><p>Last, we prove 3). From 2), we know that lim n → ∞ ρ ( T n ( x , y , z ) , T n ( u , v , w ) ) exists. If lim n → ∞ ρ ( T n ( x , y , z ) , T n ( u , v , w ) ) ≠ 0 , we suppose that</p><p>lim n → ∞ 1 3 ρ ( T n ( x , y , z ) , T n ( u , v , w ) ) = ε &gt; 0. (2.6)</p><p>Then it follows that</p><p>1 3 ρ ( T n ( x , y , z ) , T n ( u , v , w ) ) ≥ ε , n ∈ N + .</p><p>By (2.6), we have</p><p>lim n → ∞ 1 3 [ l d ( F n ( x , y , z ) , F n ( u , v , w ) ) + k d ( F n ( y , z , x ) , F n ( v , w , u ) ) + j d ( F n ( z , x , y ) , F n ( w , u , v ) ) ] = ε</p><p>which implies that there exists m 0 ∈ N + such that</p><p>ε ≤ 1 3 [ l d ( F m 0 ( x , y , z ) , F m 0 ( u , v , w ) ) + k d ( F m 0 ( y , z , x ) , F m 0 ( v , w , u ) )     + j d ( F m 0 ( z , x , y ) , F m 0 ( w , u , v ) ) ] &lt; ε + δ ( ε ) . (2.7)</p><p>Since F is a tripled generalized Meir-Keeler type contraction, we get</p><p>ε &gt; d ( F ( F m 0 ( x , y , z ) , F m 0 ( y , z , x ) , F m 0 ( z , x , y ) ) ,             F ( F m 0 ( u , v , w ) , F m 0 ( v , w , u ) , F m 0 ( w , u , v ) ) ) = d ( F m 0 + 1 ( x , y , z ) , F m 0 + 1 ( u , v , w ) ) . (2.8)</p><p>By (2.7), we also have</p><p>ε ≤ 1 3 [ k d ( F m 0 ( y , z , x ) , F m 0 ( v , w , u ) ) + j d ( F m 0 ( z , x , y ) , F m 0 ( w , u , v ) )     + l d ( F m 0 ( x , y , z ) , F m 0 ( u , v , w ) ) ] &lt; ε + δ ( ε ) ,</p><p>and</p><p>ε ≤ 1 3 [ j d ( F m 0 ( z , x , y ) , F m 0 ( w , u , v ) ) + l d ( F m 0 ( x , y , z ) , F m 0 ( u , v , w ) )     + k d ( F m 0 ( y , z , x ) , F m 0 ( v , w , u ) ) ] &lt; ε + δ ( ε ) .</p><p>Then, we get</p><p>ε &gt; d ( F m 0 + 1 ( y , z , x ) , F m 0 + 1 ( v , w , u ) ) (2.9)</p><p>and</p><p>ε &gt; d ( F m 0 + 1 ( z , x , y ) , F m 0 + 1 ( w , u , v ) ) . (2.10)</p><p>From (2.8)-(2.10), we get</p><p>1 3 ρ ( T m 0 + 1 ( x , y , z ) , T m 0 + 1 ( u , v , w ) ) = 1 3 [ d ( F m 0 + 1 ( x , y , z ) , F m 0 + 1 ( u , v , w ) ) + d ( F m 0 + 1 ( y , z , x ) , F m 0 + 1 ( v , w , u ) )         + d ( F m 0 + 1 ( z , x , y ) , F m 0 + 1 ( w , u , v ) ) ] &lt; ε .</p><p>This is a contradiction. The proof is completed.</p><p>From the definition of T, we observe that the fixed point of T is exactly the tripled fixed point of F, that is,</p><p>( x , y , z ) = T ( x , y , z ) ⇔ x = F ( x , y , z ) , y = F ( y , z , x ) , z = F ( z , x , y ) .</p><p>We will obtain the tripled fixed point theorems by investigating the fixed point of T.</p><p>Theorem 2.3 Let ( X , ≤ , d ) be a partially ordered metric space and ( X , d ) is a complete metric space. Let l , k , j be the given constants with 0 &lt; l + k + j &lt; 3 . Let F : M → X be nondecreasing in each of its variables and be a tripled generalized Meir-Keeler contraction. T : M → M be a mapping defined as (2.4) satisfying that there exists ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) ∈ M with ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) ≼ T ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) . Then, there exists ( x * , y * , z * ) ∈ M which is a tripled fixed point of F, if either</p><p>1) F is continuous or</p><p>2) a nondecreasing sequence ( x n , y n , z n ) → ( x , y , z ) , then ( x n , y n , z n ) ≼ ( x , y , z ) , ∀ n ∈ N + .</p><p>Furthermore, if</p><p>3) for ( x , y , z ) , ( u , v , w ) ∈ M , there exists ( a , b , c ) ∈ M that is comparable to ( x , y , z ) and ( u , v , w ) , we get the uniqueness of tripled fixed point of F and x * = y * = z * .</p><p>Proof. Since ( X , d ) is a complete metric space, it is obvious that the metric space ( M , ρ ) is complete. By Theorem 2.2, T is non-decreasing. Meanwhile, by Theorem 2.1 and (2.5), for each ( x , y , z ) , ( u , v , w ) ∈ M with ( x , y , z ) ≼ ( u , v , w ) , we have</p><p>ρ ( T ( x , y , z ) , T ( u , v , w ) ) = d ( F ( x , y , z ) , F ( u , v , w ) ) + d ( F ( y , z , x ) , F ( v , w , u ) ) + d ( F ( z , x , y ) , F ( w , u , v ) ) &lt; 1 3 ( l + k + j ) ρ ( ( x , y , z ) , ( u , v , w ) ) .</p><p>By Lemma 1.1, we deduce that T has a unique fixed point denoted by ( x * , y * , z * ) , then ( x * , y * , z * ) is the unique tripled fixed point of F.</p><p>However, we can check that ( y * , z * , x * ) is also a tripled fixed point of F. In fact, since ( x * , y * , z * ) is the tripled fixed point of F, i.e., x * = F ( x * , y * , z * ) , y * = F ( y * , z * , x * ) , z * = F ( z * , x * , y * ) , we have</p><p>y * = F ( y * , z * , x * ) , z * = F ( z * , x * , y * ) , x * = F ( x * , y * , z * )</p><p>which implies that ( y * , z * , x * ) is also a tripled fixed point of F. By the uniqueness, we get x * = y * = z * . □</p><p>Corollary 1 Suppose that all the hypotheses of Theorem 2.3 are satisfied, then the tripled fixed point ( x * , y * , z * ) can be deduced by</p><p>F n ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) → x * , F n ( y 0 , z 0 , x 0 ) → y * , F n ( z 0 , x 0 , y 0 ) → z * ,     as     n → ∞ . (2.11)</p><p>Proof. By examining the proof of Theorem 2.3, ( x * , y * , z * ) is actually the fixed point of T on M . According to the proof of Lemma 1.1 in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref6">6</xref>] , we have</p><p>lim n → ∞ T n ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) = ( x * , y * , z * ) .</p><p>By the definition of T n , we can easily get (2.11). □</p><p>Theorem 2.4 In addition to the hypotheses of Theorem 2.3 except (3), we have x * = y * = z * by adding the hypotheses (3<sup>*</sup>): x 0 , y 0 , z 0 in X are comparable.</p><p>Proof. Without the restriction of the generality, we assume that x 0 ≤ y 0 ≤ z 0 . Setting ( x 1 , y 1 , z 1 ) = ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) and ( u 1 , v 1 , w 1 ) = ( y 0 , z 0 , z 0 ) , it’s easy to see that ( x 1 , y 1 , z 1 ) ≼ ( u 1 , v 1 , w 1 ) . From Theorem 1.1, we have ρ ( T n ( x 1 , y 1 , z 1 ) , T n ( u 1 , v 1 , w 1 ) ) → 0 as n → ∞ , which implies that</p><p>d ( F n ( x 1 , y 1 , z 1 ) , F n ( u 1 , v 1 , w 1 ) ) → 0, n → ∞ ,</p><p>i.e.,</p><p>d ( F n ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) , F n ( y 0 , z 0 , z 0 ) ) → 0, n → ∞ . (2.12)</p><p>By the similar strategy, setting ( x 2 , y 2 , z 2 ) = ( y 0 , z 0 , x 0 ) and ( u 2 , v 2 , w 2 ) = ( y 0 , z 0 , z 0 ) , we can get</p><p>d ( F n ( y 0 , z 0 , x 0 ) , F n ( y 0 , z 0 , z 0 ) ) → 0, n → ∞ . (2.13)</p><p>It follows from the triangular inequality that</p><p>d ( x * , y * ) ≤ d ( x * , F n ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) ) + d ( F n ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) , F n ( y 0 , z 0 , z 0 ) )     + d ( F n ( y 0 , z 0 , z 0 ) , F n ( y 0 , z 0 , x 0 ) ) + d ( F n ( y 0 , z 0 , x 0 ) , y * ) .</p><p>Taking the limit as n → ∞ , by (2.11), (2.12) and (2.13), we get x * = y * .</p><p>Similarly, by setting</p><p>( x 3 , y 3 , z 3 ) = ( y 0 , z 0 , x 0 ) , ( u 3 , v 3 , w 3 ) = ( z 0 , z 0 , y 0 )</p><p>and</p><p>( x 4 , y 4 , z 4 ) = ( z 0 , x 0 , y 0 ) , ( u 4 , v 4 , w 4 ) = ( z 0 , z 0 , y 0 ) ,</p><p>we can get two equalities,</p><p>d ( F n ( y 0 , z 0 , x 0 ) , F n ( z 0 , z 0 , y 0 ) ) → 0, n → ∞ (2.14)</p><p>and</p><p>d ( F n ( z 0 , x 0 , y 0 ) , F n ( z 0 , z 0 , y 0 ) ) → 0, n → ∞ (2.15)</p><p>respectively. Then it follows from (2.11), (2.14) and (2.15) that</p><p>d ( y * , z * ) ≤ d ( y * , F n ( y 0 , z 0 , x 0 ) ) + d ( F n ( y 0 , z 0 , x 0 ) , F n ( z 0 , z 0 , y 0 ) )     + d ( F n ( z 0 , z 0 , y 0 ) , F n ( z 0 , x 0 , y 0 ) ) + d ( F n ( z 0 , x 0 , y 0 ) , z * ) → 0.</p><p>We get y * = z * . Hence we have x * = y * = z * . □</p></sec><sec id="s3"><title>3. N-Order Fixed Point Theorems</title><p>Let ( X , ≤ , d ) be a partially ordered set with a metric d on X. Let K = X N , η be the metric on K and ≼ be the partially order. For each x = ( x 1 , ⋯ , x N ) , y = ( y 1 , ⋯ , y N ) ∈ K , we define</p><p>η ( x , y ) = d ( x 1 , y 1 ) + ⋯ + d ( x N , y N )</p><p>x ≼ y ⇔ x 1 ≤ y 1 , ⋯ , x N ≤ y N</p><p>and</p><p>x ≺ y ⇔     there   exists     1 ≤ i ≤ N ,     such   that     x i &lt; y i .</p><p>Definition 4 [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref11">11</xref>] Let X be a non-empty set and F : K → X be a given mapping. An element x ∈ K is called a N-order fixed point of F if</p><p>x 1 = F ( x 1 , ⋯ , x N ) , x 2 = F ( x 2 , ⋯ , x N , x 1 ) , ⋯ , x N = F ( x N , x 1 , ⋯ , x N − 1 ) .</p><p>We introduce generally N-order generalized Meir-Keeler type contraction.</p><p>Definition 5 Let ( X , ≤ , d ) be a partially ordered metric space and F : K → X be a mapping. F is called a N-order generalized Meir-Keeler contraction if for all ε &gt; 0 there exists δ ( ε ) &gt; 0 such that for x , y ∈ K</p><p>x ≼ y , ε ≤ k 1 d ( x 1 , y 1 ) + ⋯ + k N d ( x N , y N ) N &lt; ε + δ ( ε ) ⇒ d ( F ( x ) , F ( y ) ) &lt; ε (3.16)</p><p>where k 1 , ⋯ , k N are constants with 0 &lt; k 1 + ⋯ + k N &lt; N .</p><p>Substituting the tripled case with N-order case in the discussions of Section 3, by the similar strategy, we can obtain the same results with Theorem 2.1, Theorem 2.2, Theorem 2.3, Corollary 1 and Theorem 2.4.</p></sec><sec id="s4"><title>4. The Examples</title><p>This section provides two examples to illustrate Theorem 2.3 and Theorem 2.4.</p><p>Example 1 This example is aroused by [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.92709-ref13">13</xref>] . Let X = R , d ( x , y ) = | x − y | and F : M → X , defined by</p><p>F = 4 x − 4 y + 3 z + 1 15 .</p><p>It is easy to check that F satisfies all the hypotheses of Theorem 2.3 with</p><p>l = 1 , k = 1 , j = 3 4 , δ ( ε ) = 1 4 ε</p><p>and ( x * , y * , z * ) = ( 1 12 , 1 12 , 1 12 ) is the unique tripled fixed point of F.</p><p>Example 2 Let</p><p>X = { ( 0 , 1 ) , ( 0 , 2 ) , ( 1 , 3 ) , ( 1 , 0 ) , ( 2 , 0 ) , ( 3 , 0 ) } .</p><p>For x = ( x 1 , x 2 ) , y = ( y 1 , y 2 ) ∈ X , d ( x , y ) = | x 1 − y 1 | + | x 2 − y 2 | and x ≤ y ⇔ x 1 ≤ y 1 , x 2 ≤ y 2 . F : M → X is defined by</p><p>F ( x , y , z ) = { ( 0 , 3 ) , x , y , z ∈ { ( 0 , 1 ) , ( 0 , 2 ) , ( 0 , 3 ) } ( 3 , 3 ) , x , y , z ∈ { ( 1 , 1 ) , ( 2 , 0 ) , ( 3 , 0 ) } (4.1)</p><p>It is easy to check that:</p><p>1) F is continues on M ;</p><p>2) F is a tripled generally Meir-Keeler type contraction. In fact, we can deduce that</p><p>d ( F ( x , y , z ) , F ( u , v , w ) ) = 0     for   each     ( x , y , z ) ≼ ( u , v , w ) ;</p><p>3) Setting x 0 = y 0 = z 0 = ( 0 , 1 ) , then we have F ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) = F ( y 0 , z 0 , x 0 ) = F ( z 0 , x 0 , y 0 ) = ( 0 , 3 ) . Clearly, we have ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) ≺ T ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) ;</p><p>4) Setting ( x , y , z ) = ( 0 , 1 , 0 , 2 , 0 , 3 ) , ( u , v , w ) = ( 1 , 0 , 2 , 0 , 3 , 0 ) , there are no elements in M which are comparable to ( x , y , z ) and ( u , v , w ) .</p><p>The above 4) implies that F doesn’t satisfy all the hypotheses of Theorem 2.3. However, the above 1)-3) imply that F satisfies all the hypotheses of Theorem 2.4, then F has the unique tripled fixed point ( x * , y * , z * ) with x * = y * = z * = ( 0 , 3 ) .</p></sec><sec id="s5"><title>5. Conclusion</title><p>In this paper, we extend the definition generalized Meir-Keeler type contraction to N-ordered case. And we use it to discuss N-order fixed point theorems. In future work, we will study N-ordered fixed point theory with invariant set.</p></sec><sec id="s6"><title>Acknowledgements</title><p>This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11701390).</p></sec><sec id="s7"><title>Conflicts of Interest</title><p>The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.</p></sec><sec id="s8"><title>Cite this paper</title><p>Wang, S.Y. and Zhang, J.W. (2019) N-Order Fixed Point Theory for N-Order Generalized Meir-Keeler Type Contraction in Partially Ordered Metric Spaces. 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