In the mathematical field of real analysis, Lusin's theorem (or Luzin's theorem, named for Nikolai Luzin) states that every measurable function is a continuous function on nearly all its domain. In the informal formulation of J. E. Littlewood, "every measurable function is nearly continuous".
For an interval [a, b], let
be a measurable function. Then, for every ε > 0, there exists a compact E ⊂ [a, b] such that f restricted to E is continuous and
Note that E inherits the subspace topology from [a, b]; continuity of f restricted to E is defined using this topology.
Let be a Radon measure space and Y be a second-countable topological space, let
be a measurable function. Given ε > 0, for every of finite measure there is a closed set E with µ(A \ E) < ε such that f restricted to E is continuous. If A is locally compact, we can choose E to be compact and even find a continuous function with compact support that coincides with f on E and such that .