In mathematics, a standard Borel space is the Borel space associated with a Polish space. Except in the case of discrete Polish spaces, the standard Borel space is unique, up to isomorphism of measurable spaces.

Formal definition

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A measurable space   is said to be "standard Borel" if there exists a metric on   that makes it a complete separable metric space in such a way that   is then the Borel σ-algebra.[1] Standard Borel spaces have several useful properties that do not hold for general measurable spaces.

Properties

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  • If   and   are standard Borel then any bijective measurable mapping   is an isomorphism (that is, the inverse mapping is also measurable). This follows from Souslin's theorem, as a set that is both analytic and coanalytic is necessarily Borel.
  • If   and   are standard Borel spaces and   then   is measurable if and only if the graph of   is Borel.
  • The product and direct union of a countable family of standard Borel spaces are standard.
  • Every complete probability measure on a standard Borel space turns it into a standard probability space.

Kuratowski's theorem

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Theorem. Let   be a Polish space, that is, a topological space such that there is a metric   on   that defines the topology of   and that makes   a complete separable metric space. Then   as a Borel space is Borel isomorphic to one of (1)   (2)   or (3) a finite discrete space. (This result is reminiscent of Maharam's theorem.)

It follows that a standard Borel space is characterized up to isomorphism by its cardinality,[2] and that any uncountable standard Borel space has the cardinality of the continuum.

Borel isomorphisms on standard Borel spaces are analogous to homeomorphisms on topological spaces: both are bijective and closed under composition, and a homeomorphism and its inverse are both continuous, instead of both being only Borel measurable.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Mackey, G.W. (1957): Borel structure in groups and their duals. Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 85, 134-165.
  2. ^ Srivastava, S.M. (1991), A Course on Borel Sets, Springer Verlag, ISBN 0-387-98412-7