[Math] Does absolute continuity of $f$ on $[\epsilon,1]$ and continuity at $f=0$ imply absolute continuity on $[0,1]$

measure-theoryreal-analysis

$\textbf{Question}$: Let $f$ be absolutely continuous on the interval $[\epsilon, 1]$ for $0<\epsilon<1$. Does the continuity of $f$ at 0 imply that $f$ is absolutely continuous on $[0,1]$? What if f is also of bounded variation on $[0,1]$?

$\textbf{Attempt}$:

My thoughts are that $f$ is NOT absolutely continuous on $[0,1]$.

The definition from my textbook states that a function $F$ defined on $[a,b]$ is absolutely continuous if for any $\epsilon>0$ there exists $\delta >0$ so that $\sum_{k=1}^{N}|F(b_{k})-F(a_{k})|<\epsilon$ whenever $\sum_{k=1}^{N}(b_{k}-a_{k})<\delta$ and the intervals $(a_{k},b_{k})$ are disjoint.

So, I think that the point $0$ is not included in this definition – $f$ is differentiable a.e. which does not necessarily include the boundary at the point 0, even if the point itself exists.

Is this correct? My guess is then that the bounded variation assumption will make $F$ absolutely continuous on $[0,1]$ but I am not sure why.

Best Answer

Let $h = \mathbb 1_{(0,1]}$. For $x\in \mathbb R$ defines $$ g(x) = \sum_{n=1}^\infty 2^n h(x \cdot 2^n - 1) \frac{(-1)^{n+1}}{n}$$ and $$ f(x) = \int_0^x g(t) dt. $$

  1. Then, $g$ is improper Riemann integrable and thus $f$ is continuous.

  2. Further, on every compact interval without $0$, $g$ is bounded and thus $f$ is absolutely continuous (in fact Lipschitz).

  3. But, on any neighborhood of $0$, $g$ is not Lebesgue integrable, thus $f$ is not absolutely continuous.

For the part that $f$ is additionally of bounded variation:

Notice that $f$ is AC if and only if $f$ is continuous, is BV, and maps measure zero set to measure zero set. Let $N\subset [0,1]$ have measure zero. Then, $N \cap [1/n, 1]$ has measure zero too and $$ |f(N)| = \lim_{n\to \infty} |f(N \cap [1/n, 1])| = 0. $$ That is, $f$ is AC on $[0,1]$.