Sets of points of symmetric continuity (Q892135)

A function \(f:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R\) is said to be symmetrically continuous at \(x\in\mathbb R\), denoted by \(x\in\text{SC}(f)\), if \(f(x+h)-f(x-h)\to0\) as \(h\to0\). It is an open problem (referred to \textit{S. Marcus} [Acad. Republ. Popul. Romîne, Bul. Şti., Secţ. Şti. Mat. Fiz. 7, 871--886 (1955; Zbl 0067.03504)]) to find a sufficient and necessary condition for a subset \(A\subset\mathbb R\) to be of the form \(A=\text{SC}(f)\) for some \(f\). The article under review spins around this problem. The main part consists of four sections (2--5). In Section 2, several results on possible forms of \(\text{SC}(f)\), \(\text{C}(f)\) (the set of all continuity points of \(f\)), \(\text{C}^+(f)\) (the set of all \(x\) such that a finite limit of \(f\) at \(x\) exists) and \(\text{C}^+(f)\setminus\text{C}(f)\), \(\text{SC}(f)\setminus\text{C}^+(f)\) are provided, those on \(\text{C}(f)\) and \(\text{C}^+(f)\) in an abstract setting (Polish spaces). In Section 3, the author reviews certain concepts of symmetric-like properties for sets, which then are used in some results on \(\text{SC}(f)\). For example, Bernstein sets \(B\) such that \(\text{SC}(\chi_B)=B\) and \(\text{SC}(\chi_B)=\mathbb R\setminus B\) are constructed (Theorem 3.13). The problem of characterizing sets \(\text{SC}(f)\) is intimately related to the problem of characterizing sets of the form \(\text{SC}(f)\setminus\text{C}(f)\). As for the latter, it is known that such sets have to be small in a sense. Namely, a Fried's result [\textit{H. Fried}, Fundam. Math. 29, 134--137 (1937; Zbl 0017.15904)] says that for every \(f:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R\) the set \(\text{SC}(f)\setminus\text{C}(f)\) contains no subset with Baire property that isn't meager. From a dual result by \textit{C. L. Belna} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 87, 99--102 (1983; Zbl 0515.26003)], we know that \(\text{SC}(f)\setminus\text{C}(f)\) has inner measure being null. Section 4 of the present work brings a generalization for both Fried's and Belna's results (Theorem 4.2). The last Section 5 is less related to symmetric continuity. It contains some results on existence of perfect nowhere dense sets \(A\) with \(A-A\) having nonempty interior.