In mathematics, more precisely in measure theory, Lebesgue's decomposition theorem[1][2][3] states that for every two σ-finite signed measures and on a measurable space there exist two σ-finite signed measures and such that:
These two measures are uniquely determined by and
Lebesgue's decomposition theorem can be refined in a number of ways.
First, the decomposition of a regular Borel measure on the real line can be refined:[4]
where
Second, absolutely continuous measures are classified by the Radon–Nikodym theorem, and discrete measures are easily understood. Hence (singular continuous measures aside), Lebesgue decomposition gives a very explicit description of measures. The Cantor measure (the probability measure on the real line whose cumulative distribution function is the Cantor function) is an example of a singular continuous measure.
The analogous[citation needed] decomposition for a stochastic processes is the Lévy–Itō decomposition: given a Lévy process X, it can be decomposed as a sum of three independent Lévy processes where:
This article incorporates material from Lebesgue decomposition theorem on PlanetMath, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.