Skip to main content
removed capitals from title; edited tags
Link
YCor
  • 63.9k
  • 5
  • 187
  • 286

Can we put a Probability Measureprobability measure on every $\sigma$-Algebraalgebra?

Source Link

Can we put a Probability Measure on every $\sigma$-Algebra?

The following question has puzzled me for some time:

Let $(\Omega,\Sigma)$ be a nonempty, measurable space. Does there necessarily exist a probability measure $\mu:\Sigma\to[0,1]$?

If there exists a nonempty measurable set $A$ such that no nonempty subset of $A$ is measurable (an atom), we can simply let $\mu(B)=1$ if $A\subseteq B$ and $\mu(B)=0$ otherwise. So the problem is only interesting if the $\sigma$-algebra has not atoms. This rules out every countably generated $\sigma$-algebra. An example of a $\sigma$-algebra that has no atoms but supports a probability measure is $\{0,1\}^\kappa$ for $\kappa$ uncountable, which we can endow with the coin-flipping probability measure.