Atom (measure theory)

In mathematics, more precisely in measure theory, an atom is a measurable set which has positive measure and contains no set of smaller positive measure. A measure which has no atoms is called non-atomic or atomless.

Definition

Given a measurable space $(X,\Sigma )$ and a measure $\mu$ on that space, a set $A\subset X$ in $\Sigma$ is called an atom if

$\mu (A)>0$

and for any measurable subset $B\subset A$ with

$\mu (B)<\mu (A)$

the set $B$ has measure zero.

Examples

• Consider the set X={1, 2, ..., 9, 10} and let the sigma-algebra $\Sigma$ be the power set of X. Define the measure $\mu$ of a set to be its cardinality, that is, the number of elements in the set. Then, each of the singletons {i}, for i=1,2, ..., 9, 10 is an atom.
• Consider the Lebesgue measure on the real line. This measure has no atoms.

Non-atomic measures

A measure which has no atoms is called non-atomic. In other words, a measure is non-atomic if for any measurable set $A$ with $\mu (A)>0$ there exists a measurable subset B of A such that

$\mu (A)>\mu (B)>0.\,$

A non-atomic measure with at least one positive value has an infinite number of distinct values, as starting with a set A with $\mu (A)>0$ one can construct a decreasing sequence of measurable sets

$A=A_{1}\supset A_{2}\supset A_{3}\supset \cdots$

such that

$\mu (A)=\mu (A_{1})>\mu (A_{2})>\mu (A_{3})>\cdots >0.$

This may not be true for measures having atoms; see the first example above.

It turns out that non-atomic measures actually have a continuum of values. It can be proved that if μ is a non-atomic measure and A is a measurable set with $\mu (A)>0,$ then for any real number b satisfying

$\mu (A)\geq b\geq 0\,$

there exists a measurable subset B of A such that

$\mu (B)=b.\,$

This theorem is due to Wacław Sierpiński.^[1][2] It is reminiscent of the intermediate value theorem for continuous functions.

Sketch of proof of Sierpiński's theorem on non-atomic measures. A slightly stronger statement, which however makes the proof easier, is that if $(X,\Sigma ,\mu )$ is a non-atomic measure space and $\mu (X)=c$, there exists a function $S:[0,c]\to \Sigma$ that is monotone with respect to inclusion, and a right-inverse to $\mu :\Sigma \to [0,\,c]$. That is, there exists a one-parameter family of measurable sets S(t) such that for all $0\leq t\leq t'\leq c$

$S(t)\subset S(t'),$

$\mu \left(S(t)\right)=t.$

The proof easily follows from Zorn's lemma applied to the set of all monotone partial sections to $\mu$ :

$\Gamma :=\{S:D\to \Sigma \;:\;D\subset [0,\,c],\,S\;{\mathrm {monotone}},\forall t\in D\;(\mu \left(S(t)\right)=t)\},$

ordered by inclusion of graphs, ${\mathrm {graph}}(S)\subset {\mathrm {graph}}(S').$ It's then standard to show that every chain in $\Gamma$ has an upper bound in $\Gamma$, and that any maximal element of $\Gamma$ has domain $[0,c],$ proving the claim.

See also

• Atom (order theory) — an analogous concept in order theory
• Dirac delta function
• Elementary event, also known as an atomic event

Notes

1. Sierpinski, W. (1922). "Sur les fonctions d'ensemble additives et continues" (PDF). Fundamenta Mathematicae (in French). 3: 240–246.
2. Fryszkowski, Andrzej (2005). Fixed Point Theory for Decomposable Sets (Topological Fixed Point Theory and Its Applications). New York: Springer. p. 39. ISBN 1-4020-2498-3.

References

• Bruckner, Andrew M.; Bruckner, Judith B.; Thomson, Brian S. (1997). Real analysis. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. p. 108. ISBN 0-13-458886-X.
• Butnariu, Dan; Klement, E. P. (1993). Triangular norm-based measures and games with fuzzy coalitions. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. p. 87. ISBN 0-7923-2369-6.

External links

• Atom at The Encyclopedia of Mathematics