Almost everywhere Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-31
Approximate mean limit of a function 2026-10-07
An approximate mean limit of a function is a value satisfying the displayed condition. Functions in the BV space have such finite limits outside an approximate discontinuity set up to negligible sets in the appropriate measure. Their approximate jump points instead have two distinct half-ball limits.
Atom (measure theory) Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
An atom of a measure is a measurable set of positive measure for which every measurable has either or . A singleton of positive mass is an example. A transport map cannot split the mass of a singleton among several destinations.
After integrating out other variables, let include the constrained entropy and the measure appropriate to the chosen coordinate . Its equilibrium probability density function is proportional to . Near a stable interior minimum, with . The resulting normal distribution has variance . This is the leading Gaussian fluctuation approximation; a coordinate-dependent measure contributes to the effective , and higher-order terms matter near a vanishing curvature.
Barycenter 2026-10-06
The barycenter of a probability measure on a compact convex set is the point satisfying the displayed affine integral identities. It exists by approximating the measure by finitely supported measures and using compactness of their finite convex combinations. It is unique because continuous affine functions separate points. In a Banach-space setting it agrees with the appropriate vector integral when that integral is defined.
Borel measure Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-28
A Borel measure on a topological space is a measure defined on the sigma-algebra generated by the open sets, equivalently on the Borel sets.
Bounded BV extension operator 2026-10-07
For a bounded Lipschitz domain, functions can be extended with the displayed bound and common compact support. Reflect across local Lipschitz boundary graphs, combine the reflected functions with a partition of unity, and multiply by a fixed cutoff function. Lipschitz coordinate changes control derivative measures; the product rule bounds cutoff function terms by the norm. Zero extension is also possible with an estimate for BV traces on a hypersurface, but its boundary jump must be included in the variation.
Brunn-Minkowski theorem 2026-10-14
Let and let be nonempty Lebesgue measurable sets with finite Lebesgue measures. Assume that is also a Lebesgue measurable set; its measure may be infinite. ThenHere denotes -dimensional Lebesgue measure in Euclidean space. Nonempty compact sets and nonempty open sets of finite measure satisfy the measurability assumptions. Measurability of arbitrary summands alone does not guarantee measurability of their Minkowski sum. The theorem does not require convexity. See R. J. Gardner, The Brunn-Minkowski Inequality (2002), Theorem 4.1 and the following remarks.
The th root converts a volume into a quantity that scales like a length: uniform dilation gives for . In the Euclidean plane the theorem compares square roots of areas, not the areas themselves. For the two rectangles above it reads . Equivalently their sum has area . For the two disks, it reads , an equality. These are exact geometric examples, not measured data.
Applying the theorem to the scaled sets gives, whenever that sum is a Lebesgue measurable set,For convex bodies, this means the root-volume of the interpolated shape lies above the straight line between the input root-volumes. In fact is a concave function on : convexity gives for , so interpolating two intermediate shapes gives another intermediate shape and the same inequality applies. The beauty is that no particular boundary shape appears in the bound: possible pointwise displacements force a minimum amount of space.
For convex bodies , equality holds exactly when they are homothetic convex bodies, meaning for some vector and . This equality qualification is part of the Brunn-Minkowski theorem for convex bodies. [ref]
https://sites.stat.washington.edu/jaw/COURSES/520s/523/HO.523.20/Gardner.BullAMS.02.pdf. Gardner (2002), introduction, equation 2 and its equality condition
For positive-sided axis-aligned rectangles, the comparison can be checked directly:Equality requires : the rectangles must have the same aspect ratio. Our and rectangles do not. All positive-radius disks are homothetic convex bodies, explaining their equality.Do not apply that equality criterion without its hypotheses. If , its Lebesgue measure is zero and is a translation of , so equality holds even for nonconvex . Also, changing a summand on a null set can change the measure of its Minkowski sum: in one dimension, and both have measure , but has measure . Removing the single extra point restores equality with sum measure . Thus merely being equal almost everywhere to homothetic convex bodies is not a sufficient equality test for arbitrary sets.
The Brunn-Minkowski theorem also bounds the collision-region volume: for positive-volume compact sets , reflection preserves Lebesgue measure, so . In the toy collision example this gives area at least , compared with the exact area . A lower bound alone does not identify safe reference positions; the actual Minkowski sum supplies those.
BV mollification error estimate 2026-10-07
For a nonnegative normalized mollifier supported in the radius- ball, integrate the BV translation estimate with weight . The full-space derivative variation controls the full-space error. Replacing it by variation on a smaller domain is invalid without a support condition: a nonconstant bump outside that domain has zero derivative measure inside but a nonzero mollification error.
Cantor part of a bounded-variation derivative Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
The derivative measure of a BV space function decomposes into its absolutely continuous, jump and Cantor parts. The Cantor part of a bounded-variation derivative is singular but not a jump measure on a rectifiable hypersurface. The special bounded-variation space excludes it; finite-length image signal interfaces alone cannot describe it.
Cantor-space representation of positive functionals Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
Extend the cylinder premeasure from a positive functional to a Borel probability measure and use cylinder-function density in Cantor space. The integral and functional agree on cylinder simple functions, and both are continuous in the supremum norm, so they agree on all of . Uniqueness on the generating cylinder algebra gives uniqueness of the Borel measure.
Choquet's theorem by strict convexity 2026-10-06
Maximize the integral of a continuous strictly convex function among probability measures with a fixed barycenter. The supporting measure lemma for affine upper envelopes implies that the maximizing measure has zero integral of the nonnegative envelope gap. Strict convexity makes this gap positive at every nonextreme point, so the measure is concentrated on the extreme boundary. Metrizability makes that boundary Borel and supplies the continuous strictly convex function.
Coarea formula for BV functions 2026-10-07
For a scalar function in the BV space, derivative variation is the integral of the relative perimeter measures of its superlevel sets. The formula holds on every Borel subset of the domain, not just for total mass. It converts the continuous ROF denoising problem into linked minimization problems for finite-perimeter sets.
Complete measure 2026-10-05
A measure is complete when every subset of each null set is a measurable set. Such a subset also has measure zero by monotonicity. The completion of a measure extends it to a complete measure by adjoining all subsets of measurable null sets to its sigma-algebra.
Conditional expectation from finite-measure densities Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
For nonnegative integrable , the finite measure restricted to a sub-sigma-algebra is absolutely continuous with respect to the restricted base measure. Its Radon-Nikodym derivative is -measurable and has the required integral identities. Positive and negative parts extend the construction to real integrable functions; real and imaginary parts extend it to complex functions. The result is unique almost everywhere.
Conservation of etendue 2026-10-14
Lossless reversible propagation preserves the etendue of the same bundle of light rays. Here the model uses stationary isotropic media, specular reflection and refraction, with every selected light ray reaching the output and with no optical gain or scattering of light. An aperture that blocks some incident light rays changes which bundle is counted; the full incident and transmitted etendue need not be equal. [ref]
Étendue (Photon Snacks) by R. John Koshel. Étendue, pp. 1–2, lossless-system and entrance-pupil restrictions; p. 3, Figure 1, preserved generalized phase-space element
The underlying phase space has four coordinates. In a planar section with constant refractive index, let locate a light ray and setThe Jacobian determinant from spherical coordinates givesThus etendue is a four-dimensional volume, preserved by the optical counterpart of Liouville theorem in Hamiltonian mechanics. Individual position and direction extents may change, and correlations between them matter. The Lagrange optical invariant is a related paraxial approximation invariant for pairs of light rays, rather than the full four-dimensional measure.
Continuity of probability 2026-10-14
Continuity of probability says that nested events can be approximated by their finite stages without losing probability in the limit of a sequence. In a probability space , let . ThenThe sigma-algebra ensures that both limiting events belong to . These are continuity from below of a measure and continuity from above of a measure. The first holds even for an infinite measure; the second requires finite measure of the first set, which is automatic for a probability measure because .[ref]
For a concrete model, toss a fair coin through a sequence of independent Bernoulli trials, and let be the event of at least one head in the first tosses. Its complement is the event of initial tails. On the sample space of infinite head-or-tail sequences,Every finite waiting horizon has positive tail probability, yet the event of waiting forever has probability zero. That intersection is not empty: it contains the all-tails sequence. Thus a zero-probability event need not be impossible as an outcome, and eventual success almost surely does not supply a deterministic deadline. The waiting time for the first head has a geometric distribution with success probability . After ten tosses, the remaining tail probability is exactly ; nine tosses leave .
Exact fair-coin model: success by toss n increases to probability one, while the all-tails prefix probability decreases to zero
. Details. A proof outline exposes what makes countable additivity stronger than finite additivity of a set function. For increasing events, put and for . These set differences are pairwise disjoint events, their union is , and the first pieces have union . ConsequentlyFor decreasing events, their complements increase to ; applying the increasing result and the complement rule of probability gives . The finite-total-mass condition is essential for this subtraction. For comparison, the counting measure of each set of natural numbers is infinite, although their intersection is empty and has measure zero.
Conversely, on a sigma-algebra, a nonnegative normalized set function satisfying finite additivity of a set function and satisfies countable additivity. For pairwise disjoint events with , the remainders decrease to the empty set, andTaking the limit of a sequence recovers the infinite sum. This equivalence explains why continuity of probability is part of the foundations rather than a separate assumption about smooth curves.
One useful application controls infinitely many possible errors. If events satisfy , then the events decrease, and the union bound gives . Continuity of probability therefore makes : errors occur infinitely often with probability zero. This is the Borel-Cantelli first lemma, and it requires no independence. For the illustrative bounds , the probability of any error at index or later is at most , an explicit truncation guarantee.
The word continuity here concerns nested sets, not the absence of atoms in a probability distribution. For any real-valued random variable , the events decrease to . Hence its cumulative distribution function is right-continuous even when it has jumps, as for a geometric distribution. The nesting hypothesis matters: an arbitrary sequence of events need not admit either displayed interchange of limit and probability.
Continuum Gaussian free field 2026-09-24
The continuum Gaussian free field on a planar domain is a centered Gaussian process indexed by finite-energy measures or test functions, with covariance given by the Green function of the Laplacian on .
Convolution of measures on the circle 2026-10-31
For finite complex measures on the additive circle group, convolution is the pushforward measure of their product under addition modulo . EquivalentlyBounded tests are integrable against the product variation measure, so Fubini's theorem applies. Testing the factorization proves the displayed Fourier coefficient of a measure on the circle identity. The convolution of two probability measures is again a probability measure. On these measures convolution preserves simultaneous convergence in the weak-star topology: multiply the converging coefficients and use their common unit variation bound and dense trigonometric tests.
For a finite measure on a measurable space whose singletons are measurable sets, the set of point atoms of a measure is at most countable. For each positive integer , let consist of the points with singleton measure at least . If contained more than distinct points, finite additivity on those disjoint singletons would exceed the total measure. Thus each is finite.
Every strictly positive real number exceeds or equals for some , so the point atoms of a measure form the countable union . This proves that the set is countable. It also shows that a cumulative distribution function has only countably many jumps. The result does not say the measure is concentrated on those points: a non-atomic measure may assign them total measure zero.
