It is well known that a function f:[a,b]→R which has the intermediate value property (i.e. if a′,b′∈[a,b], then for each c between f(a′) and f(b′) there is some x between a′ and b′ such that f(x)=c) cannot have jump discontinuities, and that a function g:[a,b]→R of bounded variation can only have jump discontinuities. Therefore, a function having the intermediate value property and being of bounded variation must be continuous. I wonder if the BV-condition can be relaxed a little, so my question is:
Is there a discontinuous function f:[a,b]→R and a function g:[a,b]→R of bounded variation, such that f has the intermediate value property and agrees with g at every point of [a,b] except at countably many?
Any hints/help is highly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Answer
Let x∈[a,b] be a discontinuity of f.
We assume without loss of generality that x∈(a,b), the case of the boundary can be dealt with similarly.
Since g is of bounded variation, the limits l=lim and L=\lim_{y\to x^+}g(y) exist and are finite.
On the other hand, since f is Darboux and discontinuous at x, at least one of \lim_{y\to x^-}f(y) and \lim_{y\to x^+}f(y) must not exist, say the latter.
We hence have that
\begin{align}\forall \epsilon>0,\,&\exists\delta>0,\,\forall y \in(x,x+\delta),\,\,|g(y)-L|<\epsilon\tag{1}\\ \exists \epsilon_0>0,\,&\forall\delta>0,\,\exists y \in(x,x+\delta),\,\,|f(y)-L|\geq\epsilon_0\tag{2}\end{align}
Take \epsilon=\frac{\epsilon_0}{2} in (1), so that there is some \delta_0>0 with the property that |g(y)-L|<\frac{\epsilon_0}{2} whenever y \in (x,x+\delta_0).
By (2), there is some y_1\in (x,x+\delta_0) with |f(y_1)-L|\geq \epsilon_0.
If g=f except on a countable subset of (x,x+\epsilon), there must be some y_2\in(x,y_1) with g(y_2)=f(y_2).
Hence, |g(y_2)-L|=|f(y_2)-L|<\frac{\epsilon_0}{2}.
Now, since f is Darboux, it must assume all values between f(y_1) and f(y_2) on (y_1,y_2).
In particular, it must assume an uncountable range of values v with \frac{\epsilon_0}{2}\leq |v-L|\leq \epsilon_0.
This means there is some y_3\in(y_2,y_1)\subset(x,x+\delta_0) with \frac{\epsilon_0}{2}\leq |g(y_3)-L|\leq \epsilon_0, which contradicts the defining property of \epsilon_0. \square
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