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Exercise 1.3.9 (Riemann integrable functions are Lebesgue measurable)

Let f : [a,b] → ℝd be a Riemann integrable function (f(x) = 0 for x∉[a,b]). Show that f is Lebesgue measurable.

Answers

First of all, it must be clear that any piecewise constant function is automatically simple. By Darboux criteria of the Riemann integrability we have

inf ⁡ {p.c.∫ f¯ : f¯ is p.c. f ¯ ≥ f } = sup ⁡ {p.c.∫ f̲ : f̲ is p.c. f ≥f̲ }

By axiom of choice we can pick a sequence (f¯n) n∈ℕ and (f̲n) n∈ℕ of piecewise constant (and therefore simple) functions such that for all n ∈ ℕ we have

p.c.∫ f¯−p.c.∫ f̲ = ∑ i∈Ic¯im(Ii)−∑ j∈Jc̲jm(Jj) = ∑ l∈L|c¯l−c̲l|⋅m(Il) ≤∑ l∈L|c¯l−c̲l|⋅(b−a)≤! 1 n

where (c¯l)l∈L and (c̲l)l∈L are the piecewise constant representations of f¯n and f̲n with respect to the common partition (Il)l∈L of [a,b]. Taking limits as n →∞ we see from f¯n(x) ≥f̲n(x) that

∀ ⁡x ∈ ℝd : lim ⁡ n→∞ (f¯n(x) −f̲n(x)) = 0

But this implies that fn¯ and fn̲ are simple functions which pointwise converge to f by taking limits of:

∀ ⁡x ∈ ℝd : f¯ n(x) ≥ f(x) ≥f̲n(x)

Thus, f is Lebesgue measurable by definition.

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2020-08-30 00:00
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