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Abstract

Let Z be an uncountable Polish space. It is a classical result that if I ⊆ ℝ is any interval (proper or not), f: I → ℝ and $α < ω_1$ then f ○ g ∈ $B_α(Z)$ for every $g ∈ B_α(Z) ∩^ZI$ if and only if f is continuous on I, where $B_α(Z)$ stands for the αth class in Baire's classification of Borel measurable functions. We shall prove that for the classes $S_α(Z) (α > 0)$ in Sierpiński's classification of Borel measurable functions the analogous result holds where the condition that f is continuous is replaced by the condition that f is locally Lipschitz on I (thus it holds for the class of differences of semicontinuous functions, which is the class $S_1(Z)$). This theorem solves the problem raised by the work of Lindenbaum ([L] and [L, Corr.]) concerning the class of functions not leading outside $S_α(Z)$ by outer superpositions.