A differentiable function whose derivative is $0$ almost everywhere, but not everywhere

measure-theoryreal-analysis

In another thread, I remarked that if
$$\int_0^1 \vert f'(x)\vert\mathrm dx=0,$$
then $f'(x)=0$ for all $x\in(0,1)$ can only be concluded if $f'$ is continuous. This would certainly be correct if we were talking about a general integrable function $(0,1)\to\mathbb R$. Take the characteristic function of a singleton set as a counterexample where the integral vanishes, but the function doesn't. But such a function is not a valid derivative of any function, since it doesn't have the mean value property. And I couldn't find any functions where the integral of the absolute value vanishes and which have the mean value property. That's why I'm wondering:

Is there a differentiable function $f:(0,1)\to\mathbb R$ such that $f'$ is not identically $0$, but
$$\int_0^1\vert f'(x)\vert\mathrm dx=0,$$
or equivalently, $f'$ is $0$ almost everywhere, but not everywhere.

Best Answer

If $f$ is differentiable at every point of $(0,1)$ and $\int_0^{1} |f'| <\infty$ then $f$ is absolutely continuous. This theorem is proved in Rudin's RCA. So if we also assume that $f'=0$ a.e. then $f$ is a constant and $f'(x)=0$ for every $x$.

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