Rate function

A rate function is a lower-semicontinuous map $I$ into $[0,\infty ]$. It is good when every sublevel set $\{x:I(x)\le c\}$ is compact.

A local path action integrates a nonnegative convex cost g of the path's instantaneous input rate, assigning infinity to paths that are not absolutely continuous. When $g(\mu )=0$, the typical-rate path has zero cost. On any interval with prescribed total input, Jensen inequality makes a constant derivative minimize its cost. With a queue workload constraint this leads to constant-rate burst paths and the linear workload rate for a local convex action. Such a formula alone does not establish goodness in an unspecified path topology; goodness must be checked or assumed as part of the input large-deviation principle.

A rate function is a lower semicontinuous map $I:E\to [0,\infty ]$. It is good if every sublevel set $\{I\le M\}$ is a compact set. This property controls escapes to infinity and makes the minimizations in the contraction principle for large deviations attain their finite infima. On ${\mathbb{R}}^d$, a lower semicontinuous rate function tending to infinity with the norm is good.

If a good rate function has unique zero mu, every closed set missing mu has strictly positive infimum rate, possibly infinity. Otherwise a sequence of rates tending to zero lies eventually in the compact unit sublevel set; a subsequence converges to a point of the closed set, and lower semicontinuity makes that point another zero. Compactness also ensures existence of a zero whenever the infimum is zero.