Lower quasicontinuity, joint continuity and related concepts

Let X and Y be topological spaces, let Z be a metric space, and let f : X × Y → Z be a mapping. It is shown that when Y has a countable base B , then under a rather general condition on the set-valued mappings X ∋ x → f x ( B ) ∈ 2 Z , B ∈ B , there is a residual set R ⊂ X such that for every ( a , b ) ∈ R × Y , f is jointly continuous at ( a , b ) if (and only if) f a : Y → Z is continuous at b. Several new results are also established when the notion of continuity is replaced by that of quasicontinuity or by that of cliquishness. Our approach allows us to unify and improve various results from the literature.