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Assuming the Axiom of Choice, a Vitali set is not Lebesgue measurable
Statement
Assume the Axiom of Choice. Let be a Vitali set. Then is not Lebesgue measurable.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: The Axiom of Choice (The Axiom of Choice) and a Vitali set (Vitali set on ).
Each rational-difference equivalence class in meets in exactly one point (Vitali set on ).
Assuming countable choice, Lebesgue outer measure, Lebesgue measurability and Lebesgue measure are unchanged by translation (Lebesgue outer measure, Lebesgue measurability and Lebesgue measure are unchanged by translation).
Assuming countable choice, and are Lebesgue measurable with measures and respectively (A box in with parameters is Lebesgue measurable of measure , whichever of its faces are included).
is countably infinite ( is countably infinite).
A measure vanishes on and is countably additive on pairwise disjoint measurable sequences (Measures on sigma-algebras).
For every real there is a natural number with (Every complete ordered field is Archimedean).
Under countable choice (The Axiom of Countable Choice ()), Lebesgue measure is a measure on the Lebesgue sigma-algebra (Assuming countable choice, is a sigma-algebra containing every elementary set and is a complete measure extending elementary volume).
Proof
AC supplies countable choice: for a sequence of nonempty sets , apply AC to and put for its choice function . Thus [L7] and the countable-choice hypotheses in [L2] and [L3] apply. Finite additivity follows from [L5] by padding with empty sets; monotonicity follows by writing a measurable as .
Take a repetition-free enumeration of from [L4] and retain its terms in in their original order, obtaining . There are infinitely many retained terms, since are distinct members for ; taking successive least retained indices requires no choice. The translates are pairwise disjoint: an equality gives , so [L1] gives and then . They cover , since each has a representative with , and all lie inside .
Suppose, for contradiction, that is Lebesgue measurable with . Then every translate is measurable with measure by [L2], and countable additivity applied to the pairwise disjoint family of step 1.2 gives , contradicting [L3].
Suppose instead that is Lebesgue measurable with . Since , step 1.1 and [L3] give . Apply [L6] to the real number to choose with . The first translates from step 1.2 are disjoint and lie in , so finite additivity and translation invariance give , a contradiction.
Steps 2.1 and 2.2 rule out both possible values of the measure of a measurable Vitali set, so is not Lebesgue measurable.
Remarks
- The selector is given, not constructed in this theorem. Here AC is used only to supply the countable choice required by the measure construction. Obtaining a Vitali set in the first place is a separate existence theorem.
Depends on
- Lebesgue outer measure, Lebesgue measurability and Lebesgue measure are unchanged by translation
- A box in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with parameters $a_i\le b_i$ is Lebesgue measurable of measure $\prod_{i<n}(b_i-a_i)$, whichever of its faces are included
- $\mathbb{Q}$ is countably infinite
- Measures on sigma-algebras
- Every complete ordered field is Archimedean
- The Axiom of Countable Choice ($\mathrm{AC}_\omega$)
- The Axiom of Choice
- Vitali set on $[0,1]$
- Assuming countable choice, $\mathcal{L}(\mathbb{R}^n)$ is a sigma-algebra containing every elementary set and $\lambda_n$ is a complete measure extending elementary volume
Used by
- A completed-product measurable set can have a nonmeasurable exceptional section Counterexample
- A function can have measurable level sets without being measurable Counterexample
- A nonmeasurable subset of a null line shows that the product of complete measures need not be complete Counterexample
- A Vitali set shows that not every subset of ℝ is Lebesgue measurable Counterexample
- An uncountable supremum of measurable indicators can be nonmeasurable Counterexample
- Two disjoint nonmeasurable subsets of [0,1] can have the measurable union [0,1] Counterexample
- FALSE: assuming the Axiom of Choice, every subset of ℝ is Lebesgue measurable False statement
- FALSE: if every level set of a real-valued function is measurable, then the function is measurable False statement
- FALSE: if the absolute value is measurable, then the function is measurable False statement
- FALSE: the supremum of an arbitrary family of measurable functions is always measurable False statement
- Hausdorff measure is countably additive on every subset False statement
- What the Vitali set, Bernstein sets and free ultrafilters cost in choice Remark
Dependency tree · two levels
58 results within two dependency steps of this one, each drawn at its shortest distance from it. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, so the chart reads left to right and ends at this result, which carries a heavier outline. Every node is a link to that result. Click elsewhere on the chart to enlarge it.
Sources
- John K. Hunter, Measure Theory, Example 2.17 (standard reference, not scraped)
- T. Tao, An Introduction to Measure Theory (GSM 126), Section 1.2 (standard reference, not scraped)
- Jacek Cichoń, Aleksander Kharazishvili, and Bogdan Węglorz, Subsets of the Real Line, Theorem 8.2 (standard reference, not scraped)