A function is a function with
continuous derivatives.
In order to specify a
function on a domain
,
the notation
is used. The most common
space is
,
the space of continuous functions, whereas
is the space of continuously
differentiable functions. Cartan (1977, p. 327) writes humorously that "by
'differentiable,' we mean of class
, with
being as large as necessary."
Of course, any smooth function is , and when
, then any
function is
. It is natural to think of a
function as being a little bit rough, but the graph of a
function "looks" smooth.
Examples of
functions are
(for
even) and
,
which do not have a
st
derivative at 0.
The notion of
function may be restricted to those whose first
derivatives are bounded functions.
The reason for this restriction is that the set of
functions has a norm which makes
it a Banach space,