In mathematics, uniform integrability is an important concept in
real analysis,
functional analysis
Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (e.g. Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics)#Defini ...
and
measure theory
In mathematics, the concept of a measure is a generalization and formalization of geometrical measures ( length, area, volume) and other common notions, such as mass and probability of events. These seemingly distinct concepts have many simil ...
, and plays a vital role in the theory of
martingales.
Measure-theoretic definition
Uniform integrability is an extension to the notion of a family of functions being dominated in
which is central in
dominated convergence
In measure theory, Lebesgue's dominated convergence theorem provides sufficient conditions under which almost everywhere convergence of a sequence of functions implies convergence in the ''L''1 norm. Its power and utility are two of the primary ...
.
Several textbooks on real analysis and measure theory use the following definition:
Definition A: Let
be a positive
measure space
A measure space is a basic object of measure theory, a branch of mathematics that studies generalized notions of volumes. It contains an underlying set, the subsets of this set that are feasible for measuring (the -algebra) and the method that i ...
. A set
is called uniformly integrable if
, and to each
there corresponds a
such that
:
whenever
and
Definition A is rather restrictive for infinite measure spaces. A slightly more general definition of uniform integrability that works well in general measures spaces was introduced by
G. A. Hunt.
Definition H: Let
be a positive measure space. A set
is called uniformly integrable if and only if
:
where
.
For finite measure spaces the following result follows from Definition H:
Theorem 1: If
is a (positive) finite measure space, then a set
is ''uniformly integrable'' if and only if
:
Many textbooks in probability present Theorem 1 as the definition of uniform integrability in Probability spaces. When the space
is
-finite, Definition H yields the following equivalency:
Theorem 2: Let
be a
-finite measure space, and
be such that
almost surely. A set
is ''uniformly integrable'' if and only if
, and for any
, there exits
such that
:
whenever
.
In particular, the equivalence of Definitions A and H for finite measures follows immediately from Theorem 2; for this case, the statement in Definition A is obtained by taking
in Theorem 2.
Probability definition
In the theory of probability, Definition A or the statement of Theorem 1 are often presented as definitions of uniform integrability using the notation expectation of random variables., that is,
1. A class
of random variables is called uniformly integrable if:
* There exists a finite
such that, for every
in
,
and
* For every
there exists
such that, for every measurable
such that
and every
in
,
.
or alternatively
2. A class
of
random variable
A random variable (also called random quantity, aleatory variable, or stochastic variable) is a mathematical formalization of a quantity or object which depends on random events. It is a mapping or a function from possible outcomes (e.g., the po ...
s is called uniformly integrable (UI) if there exists