Wednesday, October 5, 2016

real analysis - function only contains jump discontinuity but is not piecewise continuous



Does there exists a function defined on [0,1]R such that it contains only jump discontinuity but it is not piecewise continuous?



Jump discontinuity at a point a means limxaf(x) and
limxa+f(x) both exists but not equal



piecewise continuous means every finite subinterval only contains a finite number of discontinuous points and they are all jump discontinuity



My first thought is Dirichlet function and but it appears that it is not the function that I am looking for.....



Answer



OK, next thought - the function f(pq)=1q and zero elsewhere. That's closer; it has limits of zero everywhere. But then each rational is a removable discontinuity, not a jump discontinuity. Closer, but still not it.



The next idea after that: let's build an increasing function with jumps at every rational. Let g be an enumeration of the rationals; for each rational r, g(r) is a different positive integer n. Then, define
f(x)=rQ,rx1g(r)2+g(r)
Since n1n2+n converges (to 1), that sum is finite for every x.
Choose some arbitrary x and ϵ>0. Let n be such that ϵ1n. There are only finitely many values r1,r2,,rn with g(ri)n. If we choose δ such that (x,x+δ) contains none of these ri, then for y(x,x+δ),
$$f(y)-f(x)=\sum_{r\in\mathbb{Q},x
From that, lim for all x. We have limits from the right.



For limits from the left, consider the variant function

f^*(x)=\sum_{r\in\mathbb{Q},r< x}\frac1{g(r)^2+g(r)}
This f^* is equal to f except at the rationals, where f(r)-f^*(r)=\frac1{g(r)^2+g(r)}. Again, choose arbitrary x and \epsilon>0, and let n be such that \epsilon\ge \frac1n. Find \delta such that (x-\delta,x) contains none of the n points r_i with g(r_i)\le n. Then, for y\in (x-\delta,x),
f^*(x)-f(y) = \sum_{r\in\mathbb{Q},y\le r< x}\frac1{g(r)^2+g(r)} \le \sum_{j=n+1}^{\infty}\frac1{j^2+j}=\frac1{n+1}<\epsilon
From that, \lim_{y\to x^-}f(y) = f^*(x) for all x, and we have limits from the left.



Of course, these limits \lim_{y\to x^+}f(y)=f(x) and \lim_{y\to x^-}f(y) = f^*(x) differ for every rational x, so there's a jump discontinuity at every rational.



With f discontinuous at a dense set of points, it fails to be continuous on any interval, and can't be a piecewise continuous function. Done. We have our example.



I defined this as a function from \mathbb{R} to \mathbb{R}, but it's easy to get a function on a smaller interval. Restricting f works, as does using an enumeration of the rationals in that smaller interval.



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