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Absolutely Continuous Function


An absolutely continuous function f:[a,b]->R, where a<b, is a function such that for every epsilon>0 there is a delta>0 for which

 sum_(i=1)^m|f(b_i)-f(a_i)|<epsilon

whenever [a_i,b_i] subset= [a,b] are finitely many subintervals whose interiors are pairwise disjoint sets and sum_(i=1)^(m)(b_i-a_i)<delta. The notation AC[a,b] denotes the class of such functions.

Equivalently, f has a derivative f^' almost everywhere, this derivative is Lebesgue integrable, and

 f(x)=f(a)+int_a^xf^'(t)dt.

The equality must hold for every x in [a,b], and the integral is a Lebesgue integral. This characterization is a form of the fundamental theorems of calculus.

Every Lipschitz function on [a,b] is absolutely continuous, and every absolutely continuous function has uniform continuity. Neither converse holds. For example, f(x)=sqrt(x) is absolutely continuous but is not a Lipschitz function on [0,1]. The Cantor function has uniform continuity but is not absolutely continuous.


See also

Absolutely Continuous, Cantor Function, Fundamental Theorems of Calculus, Lebesgue Integral, Lipschitz Function, Uniform Continuity

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References

Hunter, J. K. "Absolutely Continuous Functions." §3.A.2 in Notes on Partial Differential Equations. pp. 78-80. https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~hunter/pdes/pde_notes.pdf.

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Absolutely Continuous Function." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/AbsolutelyContinuousFunction.html

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