[Math] Strictly increasing, absolutely continuous function with vanishing derivative

measure-theory

The following problem comes from Folland's Real Analysis:

$A\subset [0,1]$ is a Borel set which has the property that $0<m(A\cap I)<m(I)$ for every interval $I\subset [0,1]$. We define the functions

$F(x)=m([0,x]\cap A)$

$G(x)=m([0,x]\cap A)-m([0,x] -A)$

Its fairly straightforward to show

  • $F$ is strictly increasing and absolutely continuous
  • $G$ is absolutely continuous

We wish to show that

  • $F'=0$ on some set of positive measure
  • $G$ is not monotone on any interval

Any thoughts?

Best Answer

Note that $$\frac{F(x)-F(x+h)}{h}=\frac{m(A\cap [x+h,x])}{h}\le 2\frac{m(A\cap[x-h,x+h])}{2h},\ \forall h<0 \tag{1},$$

and

$$\frac{F(x+h)-F(x)}{h}=\frac{m(A\cap [x,x+h])}{h}\le 2\frac{m(A\cap[x-h,x+h])}{2h},\ \forall h>0 \tag{2},$$

Lebesgue density theorem, $(1)$ and $(2)$ implies that $$ F'(x)=0,\ a.e. \ x\in [0,1]\setminus A.$$

Edit: As @Dave pointed out in the comment, we also have that $F'(x)=1$ a.e. $x\in A$. This implies in particular that $G'(x)=1$ a.e. $x\in A$ and $G'(x)=-1$ a.e. $x\in [0,1]\setminus A$, therefore, by using the properties of $A$, it follows immediate that $G$ cannot be monotone in any interval.