A measurable space is a pair where is a sigma-algebra of subsets of : it contains , is closed under complements relative to , and is closed under countable unions. A measure on it is a function with and countable additivity:whenever the measurable sets are pairwise disjoint. Infinite values are allowed. The triple is a measure space.
Because , the family contains . If , then belongs to and is a subset of , so it belongs to . If each , their countable union belongs to and remains a subset of . Thus is a sigma-algebra on , with relative complements taken in , not in .
Equivalently,the trace sigma-algebra on the measurable set . The measurability of is what makes this equal to the family in the question.
The function takes values in and has . For any pairwise disjoint , countable additivity of givesTherefore is a measure on : it is the restriction of a measure to a measurable subset.
For a measure space and , the restriction of a measure to a measurable subset is the measure on given by the displayed formula. The trace sigma-algebra consists of the measurable sets contained in . The empty-set axiom and countable additivity are inherited directly from . An associated measure on the original sigma-algebra is for ; the two constructions have different underlying measurable spaces.
Trace sigma-algebra 2026-10-31
For a measurable space and any subset , the trace sigma-algebra is the displayed family of subsets of . It contains , is closed under relative complements since , and is closed under countable unions. If , it equals . Without that measurability assumption, the traces need not be measurable sets in the original sigma-algebra.