Definition:Lower Semicontinuous

Definition
Let $f: S \to \R \cup \set {-\infty, \infty}$ be an extended real valued function.

Let $S$ be endowed with a topology $\tau$.

Then $f$ is lower semicontinuous at $\bar x \in S$ :


 * $\ds \liminf_{x \mathop \to \bar x} \map f x = \map f {\bar x}$

where $\ds \liminf_{x \mathop \to \bar x} \map f x$ stands for the lower limit of $f$ at $\bar x$.

Also known as
When the context is clear, the abbreviation LSC can be used to mean lower semicontinuous.

Also see

 * Definition:Upper Semicontinuous

Stronger conditions

 * Definition:Continuous Mapping