5
$\begingroup$

Let $\pi$ denote a probability measure on $[0,+\infty)$ and let us assume that

$$m:=\int_0^\infty x \, \mathrm{d} \, \pi(x)<+\infty.$$

Let us consider the integral operator $\mathcal{L}$ on $L_2(\pi)$ defined by

$$(\mathcal{L}f)(x)=\int_0^\infty (x \wedge y)f(y) \, d \pi(y)$$

One can show that $\mathcal{L}$ is self-adjoint and positive semidefinite.

We can show that $\mathcal{L}$ is in the trace class and that the trace of $\mathcal{L}$ is less than or equal to $m$.

Is it actually equal to $m$?

We could not find this in standard textbooks on functional analysis (Lax, Yoshida, Reed-Simon)

$\endgroup$
6
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ What is the meaning of $(x\wedge y)$? $\endgroup$
    – user1688
    Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 11:32
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Do you mean $x\wedge y = \mathrm{min}(x,y)$? $\endgroup$
    – Kusma
    Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 11:55
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Yes, $x \wedge y = \min\{ x,y\}$ $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 12:11
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ I disagree. Finiteness of the mean of $\pi$ does imply that the operator is Hilbert-Schmidt: $\|\mathcal{L}\|_{\mathrm{HS}}^2 = \int\!\int (x \wedge y)^2 \,d\pi(x)\,d\pi(y) \le \int\!\int x y \,d\pi(x)\,d\pi(y) = \left(\int x \,d\pi(x) \right)^2 $ $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 14:17
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ This is a very plausible conjecture since you would of course expect that $\textrm{tr}\: L = \int K(x,x) d\pi(x)$ for an integral operator with kernel $K$, but obviously you need a separate argument, it won't just follow from $L$ being trace class (for starters, $K(x,x)$ can be changed without affecting the operator). This general question has of course been studied in some depth. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 14:20

1 Answer 1

1
$\begingroup$

Most probably this question has more standard explanation, but you may use that for continuous Kernels $K(x,y)$ on a standard metric measure space $(X,\mu,\rho)$ ($(X,\mu)$ is a standard probabilistic space, $\rho$ an admissible metric, where admissiblity means that $\rho(x,y)$ is measurable on $X\times X$ and separable on a set of full measure) we have $\int K(x,x)\,d\mu(x)= \operatorname{tr}\mathcal{K}$ provided that the integral operator $\mathcal{K}$ with kernel $K$ is of trace class.

This may be proved by approximating $\mathcal{K}$ in a trace class by finite rank operators with kernels $\sum_{i=1}^N f_i(x)g_i(y)$, $f_i,g_i\in L^2(X)$ (such a possibility follows from a representation of $\mathcal K$ as an infinite convergent sum $\sum s_i \langle v_i,\cdot \rangle u_i$ for unit vectors $v_i,u_i$, where $s_i$ are singular numbers of $\mathcal K$) and the check that convergence in $S^1$-norm implies the convergence of the integral of kernels over diagonal to $\int K(x,x)\,d\mu(x)$. It may be deduced from Theorem 15 in [A. M. Vershik, P. B. Zatitskiy, and F. V. Petrov. Virtual continuity of measurable functions and its applications. Russian Mathematical Surveys 69:6 (2014), 1031–1063]: the convergence in $S^1$ implies the convergence in $VC^1$ which implies the convergence of the integral over diagonal (defined both for finite rank kernels and for cotinuous kernels.)

$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Thank you! It is good to know that the trace of an integral operator is actually equal to the naive formula $\int \mathcal{K}(x,x)d\mu(x)$ in such generality. In the meantime we gave a self-contained affirmative answer to the specific question that I posed above (which also uses that $\mathcal{L}$ is positive semidefinite) . But I still suspect that a standard, off-the-shelf textbook reference covers our specific question. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 9:26

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .