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uniqueness explained
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Kostya_I
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Someone should mention an elementary answer the specific question by OP. An affine hyperplane in $\mathbb{R}^n$ can be uniquely represented as $l_{v,c}:=\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n:v\cdot \mathbb{x}=c\}$, where $v\in\mathbb{R}^n$, $|v|=1$, and $c>0$ (except for planes passing through the origin which can be disregarded as they will have zero measure anyway). Let $dv$ be the uniform measure on the unit sphere and $dc$ the Lebesgue measure on the real line. Then, if $\mathcal{L}$ denotes the map $(v,c)\mapsto l_{v,c}$, the measure on the set of planes defined by $\mu(A)=dv\otimes dc(\mathcal{L^{-1}}(A))$ satisfies all the requested properties*. Indeed, for example, the effect of a translation by a vector $-w$ in these coordinates is the map $(v,c)\mapsto (v,c+v\cdot w)$ or $(v,c)\mapsto (-v,-c-v\cdot w)$, both of which have Jacobian equal to one. The effect of rotation is simply rotating $v$, the effect of scaling is to scale $c$ etc.

The same can be done for affine subspaces of all dimensions - an affine subspace is an element of the Grassmanian shifted by a vector in its orthogonal complement, and you can just take the Haar measure on the Grassmanian times the Lebesgue measure on its orthogonal complement.

*except that the scaling property is different, but it should not be hard to see that there are no non-trivial measures with the requested scaling property.

UPD: To see that such a measure is unique up to scaling, observe that if we have another such measure $\nu$, then $\nu$ is absolutely continuous with respect to $\mu$, thus its pullback to $\{(v,c)\}$ has a density with respect to Lebesgue measure. Clearly, this density is rotationally invariant, thus, it is enough to show that it is invariant under shifts $c\mapsto c+\alpha$. Let $\varepsilon,\delta>0$ be small, let $|v_0|=1, c_0>0$ and consider the set $R_{\varepsilon,\delta} (v_0,c_0)=\{|v-v_0|<\varepsilon,|c-c_0|<\delta\}$. We have $1-\varepsilon^2<v\cdot v_0<1+\varepsilon^2$ for all $v\in R_{\varepsilon,\delta} (v_0,c_0)$. Hence, shifting the corresponding set of lines by $\alpha v_0$ sends $R_{\varepsilon,\delta} (v_0,c_0)$ to a set contained in $R_{\varepsilon,\delta+\varepsilon^2} (v_0,c_0+\alpha)$ and containing $R_{\varepsilon,\delta-\varepsilon^2} (v_0,c_0+\alpha)$. Sending $\varepsilon\to 0$ and using (e. g.) the Lebesgue differentiation theorem completes the proof (of course, one can also do it without densities).

Someone should mention an elementary answer the specific question by OP. An affine hyperplane in $\mathbb{R}^n$ can be uniquely represented as $l_{v,c}:=\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n:v\cdot \mathbb{x}=c\}$, where $v\in\mathbb{R}^n$, $|v|=1$, and $c>0$ (except for planes passing through the origin which can be disregarded as they will have zero measure anyway). Let $dv$ be the uniform measure on the unit sphere and $dc$ the Lebesgue measure on the real line. Then, if $\mathcal{L}$ denotes the map $(v,c)\mapsto l_{v,c}$, the measure on the set of planes defined by $\mu(A)=dv\otimes dc(\mathcal{L^{-1}}(A))$ satisfies all the requested properties*. Indeed, for example, the effect of a translation by a vector $-w$ in these coordinates is the map $(v,c)\mapsto (v,c+v\cdot w)$ or $(v,c)\mapsto (-v,-c-v\cdot w)$, both of which have Jacobian equal to one. The effect of rotation is simply rotating $v$, the effect of scaling is to scale $c$ etc.

The same can be done for affine subspaces of all dimensions - an affine subspace is an element of the Grassmanian shifted by a vector in its orthogonal complement, and you can just take the Haar measure on the Grassmanian times the Lebesgue measure on its orthogonal complement.

*except that the scaling property is different, but it should not be hard to see that there are no non-trivial measures with the requested scaling property.

Someone should mention an elementary answer the specific question by OP. An affine hyperplane in $\mathbb{R}^n$ can be uniquely represented as $l_{v,c}:=\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n:v\cdot \mathbb{x}=c\}$, where $v\in\mathbb{R}^n$, $|v|=1$, and $c>0$ (except for planes passing through the origin which can be disregarded as they will have zero measure anyway). Let $dv$ be the uniform measure on the unit sphere and $dc$ the Lebesgue measure on the real line. Then, if $\mathcal{L}$ denotes the map $(v,c)\mapsto l_{v,c}$, the measure on the set of planes defined by $\mu(A)=dv\otimes dc(\mathcal{L^{-1}}(A))$ satisfies all the requested properties*. Indeed, for example, the effect of a translation by a vector $-w$ in these coordinates is the map $(v,c)\mapsto (v,c+v\cdot w)$ or $(v,c)\mapsto (-v,-c-v\cdot w)$, both of which have Jacobian equal to one. The effect of rotation is simply rotating $v$, the effect of scaling is to scale $c$ etc.

The same can be done for affine subspaces of all dimensions - an affine subspace is an element of the Grassmanian shifted by a vector in its orthogonal complement, and you can just take the Haar measure on the Grassmanian times the Lebesgue measure on its orthogonal complement.

*except that the scaling property is different, but it should not be hard to see that there are no non-trivial measures with the requested scaling property.

UPD: To see that such a measure is unique up to scaling, observe that if we have another such measure $\nu$, then $\nu$ is absolutely continuous with respect to $\mu$, thus its pullback to $\{(v,c)\}$ has a density with respect to Lebesgue measure. Clearly, this density is rotationally invariant, thus, it is enough to show that it is invariant under shifts $c\mapsto c+\alpha$. Let $\varepsilon,\delta>0$ be small, let $|v_0|=1, c_0>0$ and consider the set $R_{\varepsilon,\delta} (v_0,c_0)=\{|v-v_0|<\varepsilon,|c-c_0|<\delta\}$. We have $1-\varepsilon^2<v\cdot v_0<1+\varepsilon^2$ for all $v\in R_{\varepsilon,\delta} (v_0,c_0)$. Hence, shifting the corresponding set of lines by $\alpha v_0$ sends $R_{\varepsilon,\delta} (v_0,c_0)$ to a set contained in $R_{\varepsilon,\delta+\varepsilon^2} (v_0,c_0+\alpha)$ and containing $R_{\varepsilon,\delta-\varepsilon^2} (v_0,c_0+\alpha)$. Sending $\varepsilon\to 0$ and using (e. g.) the Lebesgue differentiation theorem completes the proof (of course, one can also do it without densities).

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Kostya_I
  • 9k
  • 1
  • 32
  • 51

Someone should mention an elementary answer the specific question by OP. An affine hyperplane in $\mathbb{R}^n$ can be uniquely represented as $l_{v,c}:=\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n:v\cdot \mathbb{x}=c\}$, where $v\in\mathbb{R}^n$, $|v|=1$, and $c>0$ (except for planes passing through the origin which can be disregarded as they will have zero measure anyway). Let $dv$ be the uniform measure on the unit sphere and $dc$ the Lebesgue measure on the real line. Then, if $\mathcal{L}$ denotes the map $(v,c)\mapsto l_{v,c}$, the measure on the set of planes defined by $\mu(A)=dv\otimes dc(\mathcal{L^{-1}}(A))$ satisfies all the requested properties*. Indeed, for example, the effect of a translation by a vector $-w$ in these coordinates is the map $(v,c)\mapsto (v,c+v\cdot w)$ or $(v,c)\mapsto (-v,-c-v\cdot w)$, both of which have Jacobian equal to one. The effect of rotation is simply rotating $v$, the effect of scaling is to scale $c$ etc.

The same can be done for affine subspaces of all dimensions - an affine subspace is an element of the Grassmanian shifted by a vector in its orthogonal complement, and you can just take the Haar measure on the Grassmanian times the Lebesgue measure on its orthogonal complement.

*except that the scaling property is different, but it should not be hard to see that there are no non-trivial measures with the requested scaling property.