Locally finite measure
Encyclopedia
In mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, a locally finite measure is a measure
Measure (mathematics)
In mathematical analysis, a measure on a set is a systematic way to assign to each suitable subset a number, intuitively interpreted as the size of the subset. In this sense, a measure is a generalization of the concepts of length, area, and volume...

 for which every point of the measure space has a neighbourhood
Neighbourhood (mathematics)
In topology and related areas of mathematics, a neighbourhood is one of the basic concepts in a topological space. Intuitively speaking, a neighbourhood of a point is a set containing the point where you can move that point some amount without leaving the set.This concept is closely related to the...

 of finite measure.

Definition

Let (X, T) be a Hausdorff
Hausdorff space
In topology and related branches of mathematics, a Hausdorff space, separated space or T2 space is a topological space in which distinct points have disjoint neighbourhoods. Of the many separation axioms that can be imposed on a topological space, the "Hausdorff condition" is the most frequently...

 topological space
Topological space
Topological spaces are mathematical structures that allow the formal definition of concepts such as convergence, connectedness, and continuity. They appear in virtually every branch of modern mathematics and are a central unifying notion...

 and let Σ be a σ-algebra on X that contains the topology T (so that every open set
Open set
The concept of an open set is fundamental to many areas of mathematics, especially point-set topology and metric topology. Intuitively speaking, a set U is open if any point x in U can be "moved" a small amount in any direction and still be in the set U...

 is a measurable set, and Σ is at least as fine as the Borel σ-algebra on X). A measure/signed measure
Signed measure
In mathematics, signed measure is a generalization of the concept of measure by allowing it to have negative values. Some authors may call it a charge, by analogy with electric charge, which is a familiar distribution that takes on positive and negative values.-Definition:There are two slightly...

/complex measure
Complex measure
In mathematics, specifically measure theory, a complex measure generalizes the concept of measure by letting it have complex values. In other words, one allows for sets whose size is a complex number.-Definition:...

 μ defined on Σ is called locally finite if, for every point p of the space X, there is an open neighbourhood Np of p such that the μ-measure of Np is finite.

In more condensed notation, μ is locally finite if and only if
If and only if
In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, if and only if is a biconditional logical connective between statements....



Examples

  1. Any probability measure
    Probability measure
    In mathematics, a probability measure is a real-valued function defined on a set of events in a probability space that satisfies measure properties such as countable additivity...

     on X is locally finite, since it assigns unit measure the whole space. Similarly, any measure that assigns finite measure to the whole space is locally finite.
  2. Lebesgue measure
    Lebesgue measure
    In measure theory, the Lebesgue measure, named after French mathematician Henri Lebesgue, is the standard way of assigning a measure to subsets of n-dimensional Euclidean space. For n = 1, 2, or 3, it coincides with the standard measure of length, area, or volume. In general, it is also called...

     on Euclidean space
    Euclidean space
    In mathematics, Euclidean space is the Euclidean plane and three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, as well as the generalizations of these notions to higher dimensions...

     is locally finite.
  3. By definition, any Radon measure
    Radon measure
    In mathematics , a Radon measure, named after Johann Radon, is a measure on the σ-algebra of Borel sets of a Hausdorff topological space X that is locally finite and inner regular.-Motivation:...

     is locally finite.
  4. Counting measure
    Counting measure
    In mathematics, the counting measure is an intuitive way to put a measure on any set: the "size" of a subset is taken to be the number of elements in the subset, if the subset is finite, and ∞ if the subset is infinite....

     is sometimes locally finite and sometimes not: counting measure on the integer
    Integer
    The integers are formed by the natural numbers together with the negatives of the non-zero natural numbers .They are known as Positive and Negative Integers respectively...

    s with their usual discrete topology is locally finite, but counting measure on the real line
    Real line
    In mathematics, the real line, or real number line is the line whose points are the real numbers. That is, the real line is the set of all real numbers, viewed as a geometric space, namely the Euclidean space of dimension one...

    with its usual Borel topology is not.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK