Characterizations of an indefinite Riemann integral (Q541398): Difference between revisions

The paper gives a necessary and sufficient condition for a function to be an indefinite Riemann integral. In other words, the problem is to characterize functions \(F:[a,b]\to\mathbb R\) which can be represented in the form \[ F(x)=C+\int_a^x f(t)\,{\text d}t,\;\;\;x\in[a,b], \] where \(C\) is a constant, \(f:[a,b]\to\mathbb R\) is a certain function, and the integral on the right-hand side is to be understood in Riemann's sense. It turns out that such representation is possible if and only if for every \(\varepsilon>0\), there exists a \(\delta>0\) such that \[ \sum_{i=1}^n\left|\frac{F(\xi_i)-F(x_{i-1})}{\xi_i-x_{i-1}}-\frac{F(x_i)-F(\xi_{i}')}{x_i-\xi_{i}'}\right|(x_i-x_{i-1})<\varepsilon \] whenever \(a=x_0<\cdots<x_n=b\) is a partition satisfying \(x_i-x_{i-1}<\delta\) and \(x_{i-1}<\xi_i\leq\xi_i'<x_i\) for every \(i\in\{1,\dots,n\}\). The proof of the `if' part uses Vitali's theorem and the fact that an almost-everywhere continuous function is Riemann integrable. The other part is proved using Riemann's characterization of integrable functions.