A factorization problem (Q416390)

This note presents a solution to a factorization problem for measurable functions on the interval proposed at the Summer Symposium in Real Analysis XXXIII. A partition \(\Pi\) of \([0,1)\) is a finite partition into intervals of the form \([a,b)\), and its size \(\delta(\Pi)\) is the maximum length of the intervals in \(\Pi\). A function \([0,1]\to[0,1]\) is said to be a permutation of \(\Pi\) if it sends \(\Pi\) to another partition, it is a translation on each partition element, and sends \(1\) to \(1\). Such maps preserve (Lebesgue) measure, and we denote by \(P\) the collection of all such permutation maps. Write \(H\) for the set of functions \([0,1]\to[0,1]\) that are almost everywhere limits of sequences in \(P\). The problem addressed is to find a minimal (in the sense of inclusion) set \(G\) of functions \([0,1]\to\mathbb R\) so that any measurable \(f:[0,1]\to\mathbb R\) has a factorization \(f=gh\) almost everywhere with \(g\in G\) and \(h\in H\). Here a solution is found with \(G\) being given by the set of functions \([0,1]\to\mathbb R\) that have \(g(0)=g(1)=0\) and are non-decreasing and continuous-from-above on \((0,1)\).