lassification of discontinuities

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concept, see jump drive.

Continuous functions are of utmost importance in mathematics and applications. However, not
all functions are continuous. If a function is not continuous at a point in its domain, one says that
it has a discontinuity there. The set of all points of discontinuity of a function may be a discrete
set, a dense set, or even the entire domain of the function.

This article describes the classification of discontinuities in the simplest case of functions of a
single real variable taking real values.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Classification of discontinuities
• 2 Examples
• 3 The set of discontinuities of a function
• 4 See also
• 5 Notes
• 6 References

• 7 External links

[edit] Classification of discontinuities

Consider a function ƒ of real variable x with real values defined in a neighborhood of a point x0.
Then three situations are possible in which the function ƒ is discontinuous at the point on the real
axis x = x0:

1. The one-sided limit from the negative direction

and the one-sided limit from the positive direction

 at x0 exist, are finite, and are equal. Then, if f(x0) is not equal to L = L + , x0 is called a
removable discontinuity. This discontinuity can be 'removed to make f continuous at x0',
or more precisely, the function

is continuous at x=x0.

2. The limits L − and L + exist and are finite, but not equal. Then, x0 is called a jump
discontinuity or step discontinuity. For this type of discontinuity, the value of f(x0) does
not matter.
3. One or both of the limits L − and L + does not exist or is infinite. Then, x0 is called an
essential discontinuity, or infinite discontinuity. (This is distinct from the use of the
term when applied to a function of a complex variable.)

The term removable discontinuity is sometimes incorrectly used for cases in which the limits in
both directions exist and are equal, while the function is undefined at the point x0.[1] This use is
improper because continuity and discontinuity of a function are concepts defined only for points
in the function's domain. Such an undefined point is properly a removable singularity.

[edit] Examples

The function in example 1, a removable discontinuity

1. Consider the function

Then, the point x0 = 1 is a removable discontinuity.

The function in example 2, a jump discontinuity

2. Consider the function

Then, the point x0 = 1 is a jump discontinuity.

The function in example 3, an essential discontinuity

3. Consider the function

Then, the point x0 = 1 is an essential discontinuity. For it to be an essential discontinuity, it

would have sufficed that only one of the two one-sided limits did not exist or were infinite.
However, given this example the discontinuity is also an essential discontinuity for the extension
of the function into complex variables.
Absolute continuity
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In mathematics, absolute continuity is a smoothness property which is stricter than continuity

and uniform continuity. Both absolute continuity of functions and absolute continuity of
measures are defined.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Absolute continuity of functions

o 1.1 Definition
o 1.2 Properties
• 2 Absolute continuity of measures
• 3 Relation between the two notions of absolute continuity
• 4 Singular measures
• 5 Examples

• 6 References

[edit] Absolute continuity of functions

[edit] Definition

Let (X, d) be a metric space and let I be an interval in the real line R. A function f: I → X is
absolutely continuous on I if for every positive number ε, there is a positive number δ such that
whenever a (finite or infinite) sequence of pairwise disjoint sub-intervals [xk, yk] of I satisfies

then

The collection of all absolutely continuous functions from I into X is denoted AC(I; X).

A further generalization is the space ACp(I; X) of curves f: I → X such that

for some m in the Lp space Lp(I; R).

[edit] Properties

• The sum and difference of two absolutely continuous functions are also absolutely
continuous. If the two functions are defined on a bounded closed interval, then their
product is also absolutely continuous.

• If an absolutely continuous function is defined on a bounded closed interval and is

nowhere zero then its reciprocal is absolutely continuous.

• Every absolutely continuous function is uniformly continuous and, therefore, continuous.

Every Lipschitz-continuous function is absolutely continuous.

• If f: [a,b] → X is absolutely continuous, then it is of bounded variation on [a,b].

• If f: [a,b] → R is absolutely continuous, then it has the Luzin N property (that is, for any
such that λ(L) = 0, it holds that λ(f(L)) = 0, where λ stands for the Lebesgue
measure on R).

• If f: I → R is absolutely continuous, then f has a derivative almost everywhere, the

derivative is Lebesgue integrable, and its integral is equal to the increment of f.

• f: I → R is absolutely continuous if and only if it is continuous, is of bounded variation

and has the Luzin N property.

• For f ∈ ACp(I; X), the metric derivative of f exists for λ-almost all times in I, and the
metric derivative is the smallest m ∈ Lp(I; R) such that

[edit] Absolute continuity of measures

If μ and ν are two measures on the same measurable space then μ is said to be absolutely
continuous with respect to ν, or dominated by ν if μ(A) = 0 for every set A for which ν(A) = 0.
This is written as “μ ≪ ν”. In symbols:
Absolute continuity of measures is reflexive and transitive, but is not antisymmetric, so it is a
preorder rather than a partial order. Instead, if μ ≪ ν and ν ≪ μ, the measures μ and ν are said to
be equivalent. Thus absolute continuity induces a partial ordering of such equivalence classes.

If μ is a signed or complex measure, it is said that μ is absolutely continuous with respect to ν if

its variation |μ| satisfies |μ| ≪ ν; equivalently, if every set A for which ν(A) = 0 is μ-null.

The Radon–Nikodym theorem states that if μ is absolutely continuous with respect to ν, and ν is
σ-finite, then μ has a density, or "Radon-Nikodym derivative", with respect to ν, which implies
that there exists a ν-measurable function f taking values in [0, +∞], denoted by f = dμ⁄dν, such that
for any ν-measurable set A we have

In most applications, if a measure on n-dimensional Euclidean space Rn is simply said to be

absolutely continuous — without specifying with respect to which other measure it is absolutely
continuous — then absolute continuity with respect to Lebesgue measure is meant. Since Rn is σ-
finite with respect to Lebesgue measure, the absolutely continuous measures on Rn are precisely
those that have densities; as a special case, the absolutely continuous probability measures are
precisely the ones that have probability density functions.

[edit] Relation between the two notions of absolute

continuity
A measure μ on Borel subsets of the real line is absolutely continuous with respect to Lebesgue
measure if and only if the point function

is locally an absolutely continuous real function. In other words, a function is locally absolutely
continuous if and only if its distributional derivative is a measure that is absolutely continuous
with respect to the Lebesgue measure.

[edit] Singular measures

Via Lebesgue's decomposition theorem, every measure can be decomposed into the sum of an
absolutely continuous measure and a singular measure. See singular measure for examples of
non-(absolutely continuous) measures.

[edit] Examples
The following functions are continuous everywhere but not absolutely continuous:
• the Cantor function;
• the function

on a finite interval containing the origin;

• the function ƒ(x) = x 2 on an unbounded interval.