Split continuity (Q2633675)

The authors introduce and investigate the following property of functions between metric spaces \(X\) and \(Y\). Let \(f:X\to Y\) be a function and let \(x\in X\). We say that \(f\) is \textit{split continuous} at \(x\) if there is \(y\in Y\) with the following properties: (1) \(\forall \varepsilon>0: f(B_X(x,\varepsilon))\cap B_Y(y,\varepsilon)\neq\emptyset\); (2) \(\forall \varepsilon>0 \exists\delta>0: f(B_X(x,\delta))\subset B_Y(f(x),\varepsilon)\cup B_Y(y,\varepsilon)\). It is easy to observe that the conditions (1) and (2) can be satisfied by at most one \(y\in Y\). A function \(f\) is split continuous if it is split continuous at each point \(x\in X\). Clearly, every continuous function is split continuous, and the opposite implication does not hold. The authors prove that \(f\) is globally split continuous iff there exists a function \(g:X\to Y\) such that the multifunction \(x\mapsto \{ f(x),g(x)\}\) is usc. A large part of the paper is devoted to real valued functions. The authors show that a function \(f:X\to\mathbb{R}\) is split continuous at \(x\in X\) iff for every continuous function \(g:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}\), the composition \(g\circ f\) is either usc or lsc at \(x\). If \(f:X\to Y\) is split continuous, then its oscillation function \(x\mapsto\omega(f,x)\) is globally split continuous. In the last part of the paper the authors study properties of the star operator defined on the space of all split continuous functions in the following way. If \(f\in\mathrm{split}(X,Y)\) then \(f^*:X\to Y\) is defined by \(f^*(x)=y_x\) where \(y_x\) is the (unique) \(y\in Y\) which satisfies the conditions (1) and (2).