The approximate variation of univariate uniform space valued functions and pointwise selection principles (Q2172876)

This paper mainly gives a generic pointwise selection result (Theorem 2) of Helly type for maps from a nonempty set of reals to a Hausdorff uniform space (in particular a metric space), by establishing a characterization (Theorem 1) of a regulated map of a compact nonempty real interval (onto a Hausdorff uniform space instead; defined slightly more generally with respect to pseudometrics) in terms of the new notion of approximate variation that is employed to give the characterization; this line of thought -- obtaining a pointwise selection result from a characterization of regulated maps -- exists, as indicated by the authors (p. 551, first paragraph), in the related literature. The importance of the main objects concerning the paper is well-known. The paper is rather self-contained, notion-wise, motivation-wise, or literature-wise; the terminologies therein for the involved nonanalytical concepts chiefly follow those in the cited \textit{J. L. Kelley}'s [General topology. Reprint of the 1955 original published by van Nostrand. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications (2017; Zbl 1358.54001)]. Some properties of approximate variation are derived, which form a basis of the proofs of the main results, along with several interesting examples and remarks clarifying the positions of certain technical conditions. These are in particular pedagogically informative. The proofs are mostly analytical (in contrast with ``topological''). It might be worth indicating that the proof of Theorem 2 depends on Helly's selection theorem. As the paper considers products of Hausdorff uniform spaces, (in particular) in connection with Theorems 1 and 2 it might be informative for that to be the following topological remarks. For reference, a Hausdorff space \(X\) is called \textit{uniformizable} if and only if \(X\) admits some separating uniformity (i.e., some uniformity \(\mathscr{U}\) such that \(\cap \mathscr{U} = \Delta_{X}\)) inducing the given topology; the Hausdorff space \(X\) will be called \textit{gaugeable} (resp. \textit{countably gaugeable}) if and only if \(X\) admits some gauge (resp. countable gauge) [i.e., some family (resp. countable family) \((d_{\theta})_{\theta \in \Theta}\) of pseudometrics over \(X\) with the property that \(d_{\theta}(x,y) = 0\) for all \(\theta \in \Theta\) implies \(x = y\)] inducing the given topology. (Here, for a set to be countable means that the set is injectable into the first infinite ordinal \(\omega\).) Thus every uniformizable space can (trivially) be made into a Hausdorff uniform space, and a Hausdorff uniform space with a countable family of pseudometrics inducing the given uniformity can (trivially) be made into a countably gaugeable space. And the following are classical observations: Let \(X\) be a topological space; then i) \(X\) is uniformizable if and only if \(X\) is gaugeable, if and only if \(X\) is Tychonoff (i.e., completely regular Hausdorff), and ii) \(X\) is metrizable if and only if \(X\) is countably gaugeable. The statement i) is a standard basic result. The ``only if'' part of the statement ii) is evident, and its converse follows immediately from the observation that if \(d_{1}, d_{2}, \dots\) is a gauge of \(X\) then the function \((x,y) \mapsto \sum_{n \in \mathbb{N}}\min \{ d_{n}(x,y), 2^{-n} \}\) on \(X^{2}\) is a metric inducing the given topology of \(X\).