Constructive decomposition of functions of two variables using functions of one variable

Abstract

Given a compact set K in the plane, which contains no triple of points forming a vertical and a horizontal segment, and a continuous real-valued map f on K, we give a construction of real-valued continuous maps of one variable g,h such that f(x,y)=g(x)+h(y) for all points (x,y) from K. This provides a constructive proof of a part of Sternfeld's theorem on basic embeddings in the plane. In the proof we construct a sequence of finite graphs, which provide an arbitrarily good approximation of the set K.