For every finite measure on the predictable sigma-algebra, bounded simple predictable processes are dense in . Include a bounded -measurable value supported at time zero when may charge that slice. Indicators of the generating rectangles and the Pi-lambda theorem prove density. This gives the completion step in the Itô isometry construction.
For an integrable function on , average on each dyadic interval of length . The resulting step function converges to almost everywhere and in the L1 norm. If has the uniform distribution on , then , where rounds down to a dyadic endpoint. Refinement makes these conditional expectations a uniformly integrable martingale. The uniformly integrable martingale convergence theorem gives almost-sure and convergence in L1 to a limit .
Since , the generated limiting sigma-algebra contains up to null sets. For every event in any finite-stage sigma-algebra, convergence in the L1 norm gives . The pi-lambda theorem extends this equality to the limiting sigma-algebra, identifying . The uniform distribution of translates the two convergence conclusions into the assertions for . Choosing a Borel representative of and assigning arbitrary values at the endpoint one makes all random variables well defined without changing either conclusion.
Kolmogorov's zero–one law 2026-10-14
For mutually independent random variables, every tail event has . Identical probability distributions are unnecessary. The tail sigma-algebra is trivial in probability: its events have probability zero or one, though it can contain nonempty proper sets.[ref]
Probability: Theory and Examples (fifth edition) by Rick Durrett. Probability: Theory and Examples (fifth edition), §2.5, Theorem 2.5.3, printed pp. 81–82
For a proof, set and . Independence extended from generating pi-systems makes independent of , hence of each tail event . The increasing union is a generating pi-system for . For fixed , the events satisfying form a Dynkin system. The pi-lambda theorem extends this equality to all . Taking givesThus is independent of itself, forcing the two stated values.[ref]
Probability: Theory and Examples (fifth edition) by Rick Durrett. Probability: Theory and Examples (fifth edition), proof of Theorem 2.5.3, steps (a) and (b), printed pp. 81–82
The useful feature is the absence of intermediate probabilities for infinite properties that ignore every finite prefix. It reduces some calculations to showing that a tail event has positive probability, or that its complement does. The theorem supplies no finite observation deadline, and an extra argument such as the calculation in infinitely many heads as a tail event is needed to decide which value occurs.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 31 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A simple predictable process can be writtenwhere each is bounded and -measurable. Define its integral to start at zero:Refining the partition leaves this sum unchanged. Every summand is a martingale, by conditioning its future increment on the information at . Bounded coefficients and the bound on make the integral an L2-bounded continuous martingale. Its terminal value is the same sum with substituted at any infinite endpoint; martingale convergence supplies this limit.
We need the conditional square identity, rather than assuming independent increments. The Doob L2 maximal inequality gives . Localize the square identity for at level and bracket stopping times. The stopped identity and this maximal bound give by monotone convergence. Nowis integrable, so localization passes to conditional expectations and is a uniformly integrable martingale. Expanding a squared increment and using provesThe infinite endpoint follows from convergence and integrability of the bracket. The initial value need not be zero: the integral itself is zero-starting.
In the square of the terminal integral, all cross terms vanish. For , the th increment and both coefficients in its cross term are measurable at , whereas the conditional mean of the th increment there is zero. For the diagonal terms, the preceding conditional identity can be multiplied by the bounded . ThereforeThis proves the Itô isometry for these simple integrands. Ordered stopping-time intervals also work, replacing the conditional identity by optional stopping theorem, but deterministic intervals suffice for the approximation requested here.
For that approximation, put on the predictable sigma-algebra. This is a finite measure. That sigma-algebra is generated, apart from the zero-time slice of measure zero, by rectangles with . The indicator of every such rectangle is a bounded simple predictable process.
Here is a density proof. Let be the closed linear span of these indicators in , and let contain the predictable sets whose indicators belong to . The whole space belongs to ; complements stay in ; and disjoint countable unions do also, because their finite partial indicator sums converge in under the finite measure. Thus is a Dynkin system containing the generating rectangle pi-system. The Pi-lambda theorem makes it the entire predictable sigma-algebra. Bounded predictable simple functions therefore belong to . Truncating any function and then approximating its truncated range by finitely many levels shows that every such function belongs to . A finite sum of rectangle indicators can be rewritten on one common deterministic time partition, with the coefficient on each interval measurable at its left endpoint; it is exactly an allowed simple process.
Consequently choose of this form with . This provesIt is density of simple predictable processes for finite measures, with a proof of the actual approximation step.
Finally apply the preceding isometry to , whose bracket is . The elementary integrals satisfyDefine the Itô integral as the limit of these elementary integrals. The same identity shows independence of the approximating sequence, linearity, mean zero, and . Applying the Doob inequality to the difference processes also gives uniform-in-time convergence on , with a continuous martingale version of the integral.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ii Paper 1 25J d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The uniqueness theorem for measures says that two measures agreeing on a generating pi-system agree on its generated sigma-algebra, provided they are finite with the same total mass, or there is a common increasing exhaustion by pi-system sets of finite measure.
For the finite case let . Equality of total masses gives closure under complements, and countable additivity gives closure under disjoint countable unions. Thus is a Dynkin system containing the generating pi-system. The pi-lambda theorem puts the entire generated sigma-algebra inside .
For the exhaustion version, let with in the pi-system and . The finite measures and agree on the generating pi-system, since it is intersection-closed. The finite proof applies, and continuity from below of a measure as gives for every measurable . A finiteness hypothesis is essential to this standard extension-uniqueness statement.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 34 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A sigma-algebra on is a collection containing , closed under complements relative to , and closed under countable unions. These properties also give closure under countable intersections by De Morgan laws.
Let . Every constituent sigma-algebra contains , so . If , its complement belongs to every , hence to . Likewise, if for all , then belongs to every . Thus is a sigma-algebra. For an empty indexing set, the usual intersection convention gives , which is also a sigma-algebra.
A union need not work. On takeTheir union contains and but not , so it is not a sigma-algebra. Put and let be the collection of all sigma-algebras on containing . This collection is nonempty because it contains the power set . By the preceding intersection argument,is a sigma-algebra containing every , and it is contained in every other such sigma-algebra. This proves existence and minimality.
For the independent random variables, define the tail sigma-algebra byFix a tail event . For each , it belongs to , which is independent of . To justify independence of the generated sigma-algebras, first use independence of finite collections on cylinder events, then extend twice by the pi-lambda theorem. In particular, for every and every .
The increasing union is an algebra of sets generating . The collection of satisfying this factorization is a Dynkin system: it contains , is closed under complements, and under countable disjoint unions. The pi-lambda theorem therefore extends the factorization to all . Since , taking gives . Consequently,This is the Kolmogorov zero-one law, proved here directly.
For each fixed , write for , with . The random variable is finite, so . Adding a real sequence tending to zero changes neither the extended-real limit inferior nor the extended-real limit superior. HenceThe quantities on the right are measurable with respect to : write the limit inferior as and the limit superior as , using countable operations on measurable functions. Therefore both threshold events belong to every such sigma-algebra, and hence are tail events, for every real threshold, including when either limit is infinite.
The final recurrence claim is false under the printed hypotheses. For , let be independent signs with equal probabilities for and , and set . These random variables are independent, have symmetric distributions, and obey . Nevertheless, the geometric series gives, on every sample path,Thus the proposed repeated-return event has probability zero, even though none of the increments is degenerate. The Kolmogorov zero-one law does not determine which of zero and one occurs.
An additional identical-distribution hypothesis makes the intended conclusion true. Here is a full proof of that qualified version, using the oscillation of a bounded centered iid random walk. Symmetry and integrability give , so is a martingale for its natural filtration. If the common probability distribution is concentrated at zero, every is zero and the conclusion is immediate. Otherwise choose with . The Borel-Cantelli lemmas then give infinitely often almost surely; thus cannot converge to a finite limit.
For , let . Before the sum is below , and at it is at most . The stopped martingale is therefore nonnegative. A stopped integrable martingale remains a martingale at these bounded times, and a nonnegative martingale converges finitely almost surely by the martingale convergence theorem. On this would force to converge finitely, which has just been ruled out. Hence almost surely. Apply the same argument to and take a countable intersection over positive integer . It follows thatThere are therefore arbitrarily late passages from above to below . A path with bounded increments of magnitude at most cannot make such a passage without visiting : jumping directly between its two open complementary half-lines would require an increment larger than . There are infinitely many such visits. Thus with the added identical-distribution hypothesis, the intended answer is
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 34 5 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Values at the endpoint one do not affect any of the conclusions, since . Set to define each random variable everywhere, and choose a Borel measurable function agreeing with almost everywhere if necessary. These choices leave all integrals and almost-sure assertions unchanged.
Every dyadic interval at level lies in a dyadic interval at level . Equivalently, is a measurable function of , so : these sigma-algebras form a filtration. Since the uniform distribution of gives , the conditional expectations are integrable and adapted. The tower property of conditional expectation givesThus is a martingale, and part (a) proves that it is uniformly integrable.
For , the event is an atom of a sigma-algebra , with probability . The value of the conditional expectation there is thereforeConsequently This also shows directly that .
By the uniformly integrable martingale convergence theorem, there is an integrable such that almost surely and in the L1 norm. To identify this limit, put . Since away from the harmless endpoint, , and is -measurable. Conversely every is a measurable function of . Thus , and both and have -measurable versions.
For , the defining property of conditional expectation gives whenever . Passing to the limit in the L1 norm yieldsThe increasing union is an algebra of sets generating . The class of events for which this integral identity holds is a Dynkin system, so the pi-lambda theorem extends the identity to every . Since both random variables are measurable there, uniqueness of conditional expectation gives almost surely. We have proved that the dyadic conditional averages recover integrable functions:because a probability-one assertion for is a full-Lebesgue measure assertion for . Likewise, the uniform distribution of turns convergence in L1 intoNo pointwise continuity of is required.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ii Paper 2 26I Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A lambda-system contains the whole space and is closed under complements and countable disjoint unions. Let be the smallest lambda-system containing a pi-system . For , the family of with is a lambda-system containing , hence is all of . Fixing and repeating the argument shows is closed under intersections. A lambda-system closed under intersections is a sigma-algebra, so . This proves the pi-lambda theorem. If two probability measures agree on , the sets on which they agree form a lambda-system; thus they agree on .
The nonnegative form of Fubini's theorem, also called Tonelli theorem, states that for a nonnegative product-measurable function on two sigma-finite measure spaces, the product integral equals either iterated integral, allowing the value infinity.
For Lebesgue measure on the plane, a bounded interval rectangle has measure . Its preimage under is , which has the same measure. Under , its vertical slice at is , whose one-dimensional Lebesgue measure is by translation invariance. Tonelli therefore gives . Horizontal slices likewise prove the equality for . The interval rectangles form a generating pi-system. Sigma-finite measure uniqueness, obtained by the finite-measure pi-lambda argument on an increasing rectangular exhaustion, extends these equalities to all Borel sets. Completion extends them to all Lebesgue-measurable sets, since Borel null sets and their subsets remain null.
Writing , matrix multiplication givesThus rotations through angles in preserve measure. Their inverses and compositions do too; every plane rotation is a finite composition of these, including a right angle as two rotations through . Lebesgue measure is invariant under every rotation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ii Paper 3 25K i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For independent random variables , let , , and let the tail sigma-algebra be . Kolmogorov zero-one law states that every has probability zero or one.
Such an event is independent of each by independence of the variables. The collection of events satisfying is a Dynkin system: it contains the whole space and is closed under complements and disjoint countable unions. It contains the pi-system , which generates . The pi-lambda theorem therefore makes independent of all of . Since itself belongs to ,
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 202 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let be the closure of the simple predictable processes in the Hilbert space . Common refinement of deterministic partitions makes these processes a vector space. To prove density of simple predictable processes for finite measures, suppose . Since is a finite measure, the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives , sodefines a finite signed measure. The indicator of each predictable generating rectangle, including each time-zero rectangle, is a simple predictable process; hence vanishes on these rectangles.
Finite intersections of the rectangles are again rectangles or empty. Add the whole space to this pi-system. Its -mass is zero because is simple and converges to in by the dominated convergence theorem. The zero sets of form a lambda-system now that its total mass is zero. The Pi-lambda theorem therefore gives for every . Taking the sets where and gives -almost everywhere.
Thus and the orthogonal complement criterion for a closed subspace of a Hilbert space yieldsOmitting the time-zero term would make this conclusion false when is concentrated at time zero.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 2 26K a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The product sigma-algebra isThe product measure is the probability measure on this sigma-algebra satisfyingThe measurable rectangles form a pi-system generating . Any two probability measures agreeing on them therefore agree on the generated sigma-algebra by the pi-lambda theorem, proving uniqueness.