Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/iii/paper-34/3/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 34 3 a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The real L2 space on a probability space consists of equivalence classes of measurable functions satisfying , where two random variables represent the same element if they are equal almost surely. Its norm isPassing to equivalence classes makes this a genuine norm: exactly when almost surely. The Minkowski inequality gives the triangle inequality.
Let be a Cauchy sequence in this norm. Choose an increasing sequence of indices such thatThis is possible by choosing beyond a Cauchy threshold for tolerance . Set . The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality on a probability space gives . By Tonelli theorem,Thus the series of absolute differences is finite almost surely. Define on this probability-one event, and give it the value zero on its complement. It is a measurable function, and almost surely.
For , the Minkowski inequality givesApply the Fatou lemma to the squared difference as . It follows thatIn particular , and therefore by the Minkowski inequality. This proves convergence in L2 of the subsequence. To recover the entire sequence, for a prescribed choose a Cauchy threshold for , then choose with and . For every ,Hence , proving completeness of Lp spaces for without assuming the desired completeness in the argument.
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