Campbell's theorem Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
Let be a Poisson point process with intensity measure , and let be a real-valued measurable function. For the ordinary Poisson sum , the condition gives
If also , then
Expand the square: equal-index terms contribute , while the Poisson factorial moment measure makes distinct-index terms contribute . Subtracting the squared expected value proves the variance formula. The Campbell first-moment formula also holds for general point processes; this variance identity uses the Poisson assumption.[ref]
Square integrability alone is insufficient for the ordinary sum on an infinite-intensity space. Take intensity on and . Then , but the sum is infinite almost surely: the ordered points satisfy by the strong law for Poisson arrival times, so comparison with the harmonic series proves divergence.
For this same , the compensated Poisson integral exists as a mean-zero limit under convergence in Lp with and has variance . Its definition is the L2 construction of compensated Poisson integrals, rather than subtraction of two infinite ordinary integrals. When the total intensity is finite, Cauchy-Schwarz inequality makes L2 imply L1, explaining why the shorter variance statement works in that special case.[ref]
For , define the compensated small-jump Poisson integral
This is an ordinary compensated finite-intensity sum. Independent Poisson random variables give mean zero and the L2 construction of compensated Poisson integrals gives, for ,
Thus is Cauchy in L2 space as , defining the first integral. It is not the difference of two separately convergent integrals. On a compact time interval , the Doob L2 maximal inequality bounds the squared supremum of the same difference by . Hence the truncated martingales are Cauchy in the expected squared supremum norm. A sufficiently rapidly decreasing sequence of cutoffs converges uniformly almost surely; its limit has càdlàg paths, so the construction also supplies a consistent process.
For large jumps, . There are only finitely many such atoms before any fixed time, almost surely, and each atom has a finite mark. The uncompensated large-jump integral is therefore a finite random sum, even though its absolute first moment is infinite. The two terms are well-defined for these different reasons.
There is also a literal signed-integral defect in the PDF: on either symmetric region is not . Its positive and negative parts both have infinite mass, so the ordinary signed Lebesgue integral is undefined. The correct divergence statement is
A symmetric principal value may be zero, but is not an ordinary signed integral. Square-integrable compensation defines the small jumps; finite activity defines the large jumps.