Distance to spaces of semicontinuous and continuous functions (Q2311702): Difference between revisions

Let $X$ be a topological space and $f\in\mathbb{R}^X$. The author calculates for particular function spaces $C\subseteq \mathbb{R}^X$ the distance $d(f,C):=\inf_{g\in C}\sup_{x\in X}|f(x)-g(x)|$. Let $usC(X)$ be the space of all real-valued upper semicontinuous functions on $X$ and $\text{uosc}(f):=\sup_{x\in X}\inf_{U\in \mathcal{U}_x}\sup_{z\in U}(f(z)-f(x))$ the upper semioscillation of $f$; here $\mathcal{U}_x$ denotes the neighbourhood system of $x$. It is proved that $d(f,usC(X)=\frac{1}{2}\text{uosc}(f)$. If $X$ is normal and $A$ a closed subset of $X$ such that $f$ is continuous on $A$, then there is a $g\in C(X)$ such that $g|_A=f|_A$ and $d(f,g)=d(f,C(X))=\frac{1}{2}\text{osc}(f)$ with $\text{osc}(f)$ denoting the oscillation of $f$. As a further typical result the author calculates $d(f,Z)$ where $Z=\{h\in C(X): h|_A=h_0\}$ and $h_0:A\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is a fixed function on a discrete closed subset of a normal space $X$.