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Inner measure

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In mathematics, in particular in measure theory, an inner measure is a function on the power set of a given set, with values in the extended real numbers, satisfying some technical conditions. Intuitively, the inner measure of a set is a lower bound of the size of that set.

Definition

An inner measure is a function

defined on all subsets of a set X, that satisfies the following conditions:

  • Limits of decreasing towers: For any sequence {Aj} of sets such that for each j and
  • Infinity must be approached: If for a set A then for every positive real number c, there exists BA such that,

The inner measure induced by a measure

Let Σ be a σ-algebra over a set X and μ be a measure on Σ. Then the inner measure μ* induced by μ is defined by

Essentially μ* gives a lower bound of the size of any set by ensuring it is at least as big as the μ-measure of any of its Σ-measurable subsets. Even though the set function μ* is usually not a measure, μ* shares the following properties with measures:

  1. μ*(∅) = 0,
  2. μ* is non-negative,
  3. If EF then μ*(E) ≤ μ*(F).

Measure completion

Induced inner measures are often used in combination with outer measures to extend a measure to a larger σ-algebra. If μ is a finite measure defined on a σ-algebra Σ over X and μ* and μ* are corresponding induced outer and inner measures, then the sets T ∈ 2X such that μ*(T) = μ* (T) form a σ-algebra with .[1] The set function μ̂ defined by

for all is a measure on known as the completion of μ.

References

  1. ^ Halmos 1950, § 14, Theorem F
  • Halmos, Paul R., Measure Theory, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1950, pp. 58.
  • A. N. Kolmogorov & S. V. Fomin, translated by Richard A. Silverman, Introductory Real Analysis, Dover Publications, New York, 1970, ISBN 0-486-61226-0 (Chapter 7)