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Pietro Majer
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Equivalently you can also define $\theta:=\Psi( p)$ as the smallest increasing function on $I:=[0,1]$ which is larger than $p$ on $I$ (then your definition would rather be the construction of $\theta$). Also note that you can define this inferior envelope of increasing functions for any bounded function $p$ on $I$.

A simple fact: by the construction, if $p$ is continuous, for any $0\le s \le t\le 1$ with $\theta(s)\neq \theta(t)$ there are $ s\le s'\le t'\le t $ such that $p(t')=\theta(t)$ and $p(s')=\theta(s) $. As a consequence, if $\omega$ is a(n increasing) modulus of continuity for $p$, then $\omega$ is also a modulus of continuity for $\theta$. In particular, if $p$ is $k$-Lipschitz so is $\theta$, and if $p$ is $\lambda$-Hölder, so is $\theta$, with $\|\theta\|_\lambda\le\|p\|_\lambda$ .

(For a polynomial $p$, one can also observe that $\theta$ is a piecewise $C^1$ function, hence Lipschitz. In fact $\|\theta'\|_{\infty,[0,1]}\le\| p'\|_{\infty,[0,1]}$, because either $t$ is a local maximum of $p$, or $\theta'(t)=0$ or $\theta'(t)=p'(t)$, so $\rm{Lip}(\theta)\le \rm{Lip}( p)$).

rmk. As to examples of uses in the literature and properties, I'd say this function $\theta$ more or less explicitly appears in F.Riesz' Running water lemma (a key ingrediend of his proof of Birkhoff's individual ergodic theorem). In fact, I believe the name "running water" alludes to the section profile of a hill (the graph of $p$) when water is streaming from the right and fills the holes (the graph of $\theta$).

Pietro Majer
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