Subadditive functions and their (pseudo-)inverses (Q820060)

The author is interested in nonnegative subadditive functions because of their presence in economic theories. With \(\mathbb R_+ = [0,\infty)\), \(\mathbb R^*_+ = [0,\infty]\), \(I = [0,\omega]\) or \(I = \mathbb R_+\); for an increasing and lower semi-continuous function \(g: I \to\mathbb R_+\) define the function \(\overrightarrow g: J \to\mathbb R\) by \[ \overrightarrow g(x) = \sup \{y\mid g(y) \leq x\}; \quad J:= \operatorname{cl}g(I), \] if \(\sup {g(I)} < \infty\), and \(J: = [\inf {g(I)}, \infty)\) otherwise. The function \(\overleftarrow g\) is defined in a dual way. In the paper relations are investigated among (semi-)continuous subadditive functions \(f\), their pseudo-inverses, functions \(\overrightarrow f\) and \(\overleftarrow f\), maximal subadditive extensions of \(f\) onto intervals \([0, \overline \omega], \overline \omega > \omega\), and the decompositions of \(f\) defined by \textit{A. M. Bruckner} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 13, 126--130 (1962; Zbl 0101.28504)]. The concluding theorem says that an increasing function \(f: I \to\mathbb R_+\) is subadditive if and only if it is a (pointwise) limit of a sequence of strictly increasing continuous subadditive functions such that the limit of the sequence of their inverse functions is equal \(\overrightarrow f\).