Lebesgue measure (updating)

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My personal motivation(s):

  • want to know when it is allowed to swap limit and sum.
  • want to know when it is allowed to swap limit and integral.
  • want to know what the Lebesgue integral is.
  • want to make a base for probability theory.

σ-algebra

Suppose a set X and its power set P(X).

The “measure” will be defined for some elements of P(X) later.

ΣP(X) is σ-algebra if

  1. ϕ,XΣ,
  2. AΣAc:=XAΣ, and
  3. {Ai}iNiAiΣ. (i could be countable infinite).

The Σ is called (A-)measurable set.

The condition 2 is a difference from the definitioin of a tpological space.

Note that, we could have more than one σ-algebra for a set, depends on how to choose the subset of its power set.

Theorem: conjunction of σ-algebras

Arbitrary numbers of conjunction of sigma algebra iΣi is also a σ-algebra.

Generated σ-algebra

Let FP(X). There exists a unique smallest σ-algebra which contains every set in F. This σ-algebra is called “σ-algebra benerated by the family F”, denoted by σ(F).

Borel (σ-)algebra

Let (X,τ) be a topological space. A Borel σ-algebra of X, B(X), is defined by

B(X):=σ(τ)

Measure space

Let (X,Σ) be an measurable set.

A map μ:Σ[0,] is caleed measure if

  1. μ(ϕ)=0
  2. μ(k=1Ek)=k=1μ(Ek), where {Ek}k=1 is any countable collection of pairwise disjoint sets (EiEj=ϕ if ij for all i,j)

(X,Σ,μ) is called measure space (cf. measurable space).

The second property is called σ-additivity.

Note that,

  • In general, two elements of σ-algebra can have joint elements.

Examples of measure

Counting measure

μ(A)={|A|,if A is finite ,if A is infinite

Dirac measure

For pX,

δp(Σ)={1,if pΣ 0,else

Almost everywhere

“Almost everywhere” is a mathmatical terminology.

If (X,Σ,μ) is a measure space, a property P is said to hold almost everywhere in X if there exists a set NΣ with μ(N)=0, and xXN have the property P.

Vitali set

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Measurable function (measurable map)

Let (X1,Σ1) and (X2,Σ2) be measurable spaces.

A function f:X1X2 is called measurable map if f1(A2)Σ1 for all A2Σ2.

This map “preserve” the structure of measure spaces.

Properties

  • When f and g is measurable functions, then gf also.
  • f±g also.

Indicator function

The indicator function of a subset A of a set X is a function 1A:X{0,1}, defined as

1A(x):={1, if  xA, 0, if  xA.

If A contains x, it returns true (1), otherwise false (0).

In Physics, it is frequently called “characteristic function” and denote χA.

Simple function and its representation

Simple function

Let (X,Σ) and (R,B(R)) be a measurable spaces. The topology is the standard topology on R.

A measurable function f:XR is called a simple function if the image of the entire set has the finite number of elements:

f(X)={f1,f2,,fN|fiR} for some NN

Note that, by definition of measurable functions, f1({fi})Σ where {fi}B(R).

When you imagine X as a simple finite set, most pre-images in B(R) are ϕ.

The simple functions are closed under addition and multiplication.

Representation of a simple function

We can write the equivalent simple function as follows:

f=fif(X)fi1f1({fi})

For example:

f(a1)=fif(X)fi[1f1({fi})(a1)]

Integral of a measurable function

When the measurable space is induced a measure μ, which always returns finite values, the integral of a measurable function f with respect to μ is defined as follows:

Xfdμ:=sup{hih(X)zμ(h1({hi})) | h is a simple function, and 0hf}

  • f and h take the same set X which has the same σ-algebra.
  • The differences between f and h is, f is just a measurable function where h is a simple function.
  • By definition, h1({hi})h1({hj}) when ij (pairwise disjoint).
  • This integral is defined with supremum.

a

Reference

Partition of a set

A partition of a set X is a set of subsets {Pi} of X such that:

  1. {Pi} is pairwise disjoint: Pi,Pj,PiPj=ϕ when PiP2,
  2. The union of {Pi} forms the whole set X: iPi=X
  3. None of the elements of S is empty: Pi,Piϕ.

When the number of partition is finite, the partition is called finite expansion.