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In some constructive systems, every function from $\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ is continuous (roughly speaking from the classical fact that computable functions are continuous). More weakly, in Bishop's constructive approach one cannot prove the existence of discontinuous functions.

I am wondering: in such a system, is the Weierstrass function $$W_\alpha(x) = \sum_{n=0}^\infty a^n \cos(b^n\pi x),\quad ab>1+3\pi/2$$ nowhere differentiable? (It is well-known classically to be continuous but nowhere differentiable.) Perhaps a broader, hence more interesting, question is whether one can construct a continuous but nowhere differentiable function in Bishop's mathematics.

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    $\begingroup$ I'm sure it's a naïve question, but, if $W_\alpha$ were constructively differentiable at a point, then wouldn't that imply that it was classically differentiable at that point? I thought the point about all functions being continuous wasn't that discontinuous functions became continuous, but rather that one simply couldn't construct a discontinuous function in the first place. (And, if that understanding is correct, does it automatically make sense to speak of the Weierstrass function?) $\endgroup$
    – LSpice
    Jan 21, 2023 at 0:55
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    $\begingroup$ I don't really see what's non-constructive about the proof that the Weierstrass function is nowhere differentiable. You get a very explicit procedure for finding points that witness the failure of differentiability. Moreover, the function is computable, so Bishop can construct it. $\endgroup$ Jan 21, 2023 at 1:12
  • $\begingroup$ The minor difficulty here is not with proving non-differentiability, but with proving continuity — because Bishop defines that as uniform continuity on compact intervals, and a classical proof might only show the pointwise continuity immediately. But the uniform continuity is provable too, and for a specific example like $a=\frac56$, $b=7$, it will be easy enough to write down an modulus of continuity explicitly. $\endgroup$
    – user44143
    Jan 21, 2023 at 4:48
  • $\begingroup$ @MattF. Bishop's definitions are usually understood as being defective. The statement that "The composition of two Bishop-continuous functions is Bishop-continuous" is equivalent to the "Fan Theorem" (awful name for what that is), but the Bishop school is consistent with the existence of Kleene Trees, which proves the negation of the Fan Theorem. $\endgroup$
    – wlad
    Jan 21, 2023 at 13:23
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    $\begingroup$ Your choices in the Bishop school are one of three: 1. Do point-free topology 2. accept the Fan Theorem 3. or use the standard meaning of the word continuous and treat it as something different from locally uniformly continuous. What you're suggesting is an overly literal reading of Bishop IMO. $\endgroup$
    – wlad
    Jan 21, 2023 at 13:24

2 Answers 2

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The usual proofs are either constructive or can be made constructive fairly easily, sometimes by a slight weakening of the theorem. For example, let us read through this note by Brent Nelson. (Please read the four page proof before reading the rest of the answer.)

The first part, establishing that the Weierstraß function is uniformly continuous, is constructive.

The second part proves non-differentiability by demonstrating that the limit $\lim_{x \to x_0} \frac{f(x) - f(x_0)}{x - x_0}$ does not exist. It is not an appeal proof by contradiction but a constructively valid refutation by contradiction.

There is just one sticky point, namely the proof tells us to select, for each $m \in \mathbb{N}$, an integer $\alpha_m$ such that $$-1/2 < b^m x_0 - \alpha_m \leq 1/2.$$ These bounds are too tight, because constructively we cannot show that every real is within distance $1/2$ of an integer. (When $b^m x_0$ is very close to $1/2$ we have to be able to decide whether it is actually smaller than $1/2$ or not in order to determine whether $\alpha_m = 0$ or $\alpha_m = 1$.)

So let us relax the condition for $\alpha_m$ a bit and see if the rest of the proof goes through. Let $q > 0$ be a small "relaxation" rational (we shall impose additional conditions on it later as needed). Using countable choice, we can select integers $\alpha_m$ such that $$-1/2 - q < b^m x_0 - \alpha_m < 1/2 + q.$$ This is possible because $q$ gives us a bit of wiggle room. Now the proof proceeds by showing that two partial sums, called $S_1$ and $S_2$, are respectively very small and very large. Smallness of $S_1$ is unproblematic. The proof that $S_2$ is large depends on bounding $x_m = b^m x_0 - \alpha_m$ away from $1$ so that $$ \frac{1 + \cos(b^n \pi x_m)}{1 + x_m} $$ is seen to be positive. This is still the case with our $q$ thrown in as long as $q < 1/2$. But where the original proof gets the bound $2/3$ we obtain a slightly worse estimate $$ \frac{1 + \cos(b^n \pi x_m)}{1 + x_m} \geq \frac{1}{1 + \frac{1}{2} + q} = \frac{2}{3 + q}. $$ We can still salvage the rest of the proof by picking a small enough $q$: so long as $a b > 1 + (3 + q) \pi / 2$, the estimates in the rest of the proof will work. Since we assumed $a b > 1 + 3 \pi / 2$, there is a rational $q > 0$ such that $a b > 1 + (3 + q) \pi / 2$, so we use one such. (This was not an application of choice, because "choosing one thing known to exist" is formally an elimination of $\exists$.)

One would likely have to work a bit harder to also eliminate countable choice.

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    $\begingroup$ Can't the sequence $(\alpha_m)_m$ be computed from the sequence of digits of $x_0$ ? By looking at e.g. the convergents of $x_0$, each one being computed constructively using only a finite amount of digits. $\endgroup$ Jan 21, 2023 at 12:43
  • $\begingroup$ @LoïcTeyssier I think this could indeed work, at least assuming Markov's principle so that inequality becomes apartness. Prove the statement for when $x_0$ does not have a finite representation in base $b$, and prove it for when it does have a finite representation in base $b$. Since no real number $x$ can fail both conditions, the proof should go through. $\endgroup$
    – wlad
    Jan 21, 2023 at 13:50
  • $\begingroup$ When you say that we don't know whether every real is within distance $1$ of an integer, do you mean (as your inequality suggests) that we don't know whether every real is within distance $1/2$ of an integer (i.e., contained in an interval of diameter $1$ centered on an integer)? Your argument (that we have to be careful for real numbers close to $1/2$) doesn't seem problematic if we are within distance $1$, since numbers close to $1/2$ are within distance $1$ of both $0$ and $1$. $\endgroup$
    – LSpice
    Jan 21, 2023 at 17:03
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    $\begingroup$ Ah, you're absolutely right, we need to find an integer within distance $1/2$. I mixed up the lengths of the intervals and distances to their endpoints. I'll fix the answer, thanks. Sorry, I was a bit too sloppy reading your comment at first. $\endgroup$ Jan 21, 2023 at 23:21
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    $\begingroup$ @MichaelBächtold: Because the object of smooth reals $R$ is not a complete metric space. You can't define reals there as limits of Cauchy sequences. The metric completion $\mathbb{R}$ of $\mathbb{Q}$ is logically dense in $R$, by which I mean that $R \setminus \mathbb{R} = \emptyset$. $\endgroup$ Jan 23, 2023 at 18:52
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This is in the canonical source, Bishop and Bridges's 1985 Constructive Analysis.

See the exercises for chapter 2:

  1. Construct a continuous function $f:[0,1]\to\mathbb{R}$ such that $f'$ does not exist on any proper compact subinterval of $[0,1]$.
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    $\begingroup$ It seems like I've solved an exercise :-) $\endgroup$ Jan 21, 2023 at 19:25
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    $\begingroup$ The way I understand Bishop's statement is that the set of non-differentiability points is dense. $\endgroup$
    – ACL
    Jan 21, 2023 at 20:14

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