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A Very Slowly Convergent Sequence of Continuous Functions

This document summarizes Walter Rudin's 1973 paper "A Very Slowly Convergent Sequence of Continuous Functions" published in Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society. Rudin constructs a sequence of continuous functions fn: [0,1] → (0,1] such that fn(x) converges to 0 for all x, but for any unbounded sequence {An}, there exists an x where lim supn→∞ Anfn(x) = ∞. This is surprising as fn is determined on a countable dense set and every countable collection of sequences tending to 0 has a subsequence where the product also tends to 0. Rudin defines the functions fn on the Cantor set using the

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56 views3 pages

A Very Slowly Convergent Sequence of Continuous Functions

This document summarizes Walter Rudin's 1973 paper "A Very Slowly Convergent Sequence of Continuous Functions" published in Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society. Rudin constructs a sequence of continuous functions fn: [0,1] → (0,1] such that fn(x) converges to 0 for all x, but for any unbounded sequence {An}, there exists an x where lim supn→∞ Anfn(x) = ∞. This is surprising as fn is determined on a countable dense set and every countable collection of sequences tending to 0 has a subsequence where the product also tends to 0. Rudin defines the functions fn on the Cantor set using the

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Shorter Notes: A Very Slowly Convergent Sequence of Continuous Functions

Author(s): Walter Rudin


Source: Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Aug., 1973), pp.
647-648
Published by: American Mathematical Society
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE
AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
Volume 39, Number 3, August 1973

A VERY SLOWLY CONVERGENT


SEQUENCE OF CONTINUOUS FUNCTIONS

WALTER RUDIN1

ABSTRACT. A sequence of continuous functionsfi: [0, 1]-+(0, 1]


is constructed, with limn o fn(x)=O for every xe [0, 1], but such
that to every unbounded sequence {A"} of positive numbers corre-
sponds a point x c [0, 1] at which lim supn+ oo Anf(x)= oc.

This may be surprising since the sequence {fg} is completely determined


by its values on a countable dense set, and since to every countable
collection {Si} of numerical sequences that tend to 0 there correspond
sequence T, with T(n)--oo, such that limnO T(n)Si(n)=O for all i.
Each x E K (the Cantor set) has a unique representation

00

x = 2 3 an(x)
n=l

where a"(x) is 0 or 2. Define functions gn e C(K) by

gn(x) = al(x) + + an(x) if an(x) = 2,

g,(x) = 2n- 1 if an(x) = 0.

If x E K is fixed, then {gn(x)} is a sequence of positive integers in which


none occurs twice; thus gn(x)--oo as n-+oo. If 6n>O and lim inf bn=O,
there exist integers 1 <n1<n2< * such that r2 bn< 1 (r= 1, 2, 3, .
Choose x E K, corresponding to {6n}, by specifying that an (x)=2 for all
r, and that an(x)=O otherwise. Then bn,gn,(x)=2r6n <21r so that
lim inf bngn(X)=O.
To complete the construction, put fn(x)= I/gn(x) if x E K, and define
fn on the rest of [0, 1] by linear interpolation.
REMARK 1. These fn are piecewise linear. There are polynomials P.
such that fn<Pn<2fn. This yields a sequence of polynomials with the
properties stated in the Abstract.
REMARK 2. On the other hand, if X is compact, fn: X-*(0, oo) is con-
tinuous, and limfn(x)=0 for every x E X, then there does exist {in} such

Received by the editors November 6, 1972 and, in revised form, November 21, 1972.
AMS (MOS) subject classifications (1970). Primary 40A05, 41A25.
1 Partially supported by NSF Grant GP-24182.
? American Mathematical Society 1973

647

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648 WALTER RUDIN

that 2n1-oo and lim infnO

hn= min(fi, J D* mn = max hn (x), in = I /Vm- .

Since hn(x)-O monotonically and X is compact, mn-*O. To each x E X


corresponds a sequence {ni}, ni-*oo, such that fni(x)=hn.(x). For this
{ni},

)Ls.fn.(x) = )Ls.hn.(X) < 2nMn - 0 as i -s oo.


DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, WISCONSIN
53706

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