Strictly positive measure

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In mathematics, strict positivity is a concept in measure theory. Intuitively, a strictly positive measure one that is "nowhere zero", or that it is zero "only on points".

[edit] Definition

Let (\Omega, \mathcal{T}) be a topological space, and let \mathcal{F} be a sigma algebra on Ω that contains the topology \mathcal{T}, so every open set in Ω is measurable. Then a measure \mu : \mathcal{F} \to [0, + \infty] on Ω is called strictly positive if every non-empty open set \varnothing \neq U \in \mathcal{T} has positive measure μ(U) > 0.

[edit] Examples

  • Dirac measure is usually not strictly positive unless the topology \mathcal{T} is particularly "coarse" (contains "few" sets). For example, δ0 on (\mathbb{R}, \mathrm{Borel} (\mathbb{R})) is not strictly positive; however, if we give \mathbb{R} the trivial topology \mathcal{T} = \{ \varnothing, \mathbb{R} \}, then δ0 is strictly positive. This example illustrates the importance of the topology in determining strict positivity.
  • Counting measure on any set Ω (with any topology) is strictly positive.
  • Gaussian measure on Euclidean space \mathbb{R}^{n} (with its Borel topology and sigma algebra) is strictly positive.
  • Lebesgue measure on \mathbb{R}^{n} (with its Borel topology and sigma algebra) is strictly positive.

[edit] See also