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Can someone please help me show, why in a compact metric space $(X,d)$ we have have $$ \mu(A)=\inf\{\mu(O) \mid A\subseteq O, O \text{ open}\}$$ and $$ \mu(A)=\sup\{\mu(K) \mid K\subseteq A, K \text{ compact}\},$$where $\mu$ is an arbitrary measure on the Borel $\sigma$-algebra generated by the open sets in $X$ ?

I know this has something to do with regularity (we proved in our course a theorem that every subset $A$ of the reals is Lebesgue measurable iff there is a closed set $K$ and an open set $O$ such that $K\subseteq A \subseteq O$ and $O\setminus K$ has measure less then $\varepsilon$. But all of this was done in a concrete setting whereas now I'm in an abstract one...)

Davide Giraudo
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  • Related: http://math.stackexchange.com/q/271848/9464 –  Mar 11 '13 at 22:51
  • Are you sure $\mu$ is not a finite measure, or atleast finite on compact sets? If defining for instance $\mu$ on Borel sets of $[0,1]$ s.t. $\mu(\emptyset)=0$, $\mu({1})=1$ and $\mu(A)=+\infty$ for all other Borel sets $A$‚ then $\mu$ is not regular. Reason being that any open set containing ${1}$ has infinite measure. – T. Eskin Mar 11 '13 at 22:56

1 Answers1

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You must assume that $\mu$ is finite. Otherwise, this may not be true, as pointed out in the comments above. Here is another counterexample to show that $\sigma$-finiteness is not enough: let $X=[0,1]$ with the usual topology and let $\mu(A)$ be the number of rational points in $A$. Since $X$ is the union of a countable number of singletons $\{p\}$, $p\in[0,1]\cap\Bbb Q$, each of which has measure $1$, together with $[0,1]\setminus\Bbb Q$, which has measure $0$, $\mu$ is $\sigma$-finite. However, $\mu(\{0\})=1$, but any open set containing $\{0\}$ must have infinite measure.

Given that $\mu$ is finite, the proof is straightforward. Define the set of Borel sets which are well-approximable by open sets outside and closed sets inside, \begin{eqnarray*} {\cal S}&:=&\{S\mid S \text{ is Borel, and for all } \epsilon>0,\text{ there exist}\\ && \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \text{open } G\supseteq S \text{ and closed } F\subseteq S \text{ with } \mu(G\setminus F)<\epsilon\}. \end{eqnarray*} If $\cal S$ contains all closed sets and is a $\sigma$-algebra, then it will contain all Borel sets.

To show that $\cal S$ contains all closed sets, if $F$ is closed, write $$G_n:=\{x\in X\mid d(x,F)<\frac 1n\}, \qquad n=1, 2, 3, \dots$$ Each $G_n$ is open, $G_1\supseteq G_2\supseteq \cdots$, and since $F$ is closed, $$ \bigcap_n G_n=\{x\in X\mid d(x,F)=0\}=F. $$ So, $\mu(G_n)$ must converge to $\mu(F)$. This shows that every closed set is in $\cal S$.

Since the complement of an open set is closed and vice-versa, $\cal S$ is closed under complementation. The only remaining step is to prove that it is closed under infinite unions. Now if $\epsilon>0$ and $S$ is the union of $S_1$, $S_2$, $S_3$, $\dots$, where each $S_i\in\cal S$, then by hypothesis there are $F_i\subseteq S_i\subseteq G_i$ with $\mu(G_i\setminus F_i)<\epsilon/2^{i+1}$ ($F_i$ closed, $G_i$ open, $i=1$, $2$, $\dots$) To get an open set $G$ containing $S$ you can simply set $$G:=\bigcup_i G_i.$$ To get a closed set $F$ contained in $S$ which approximates $S$, set $$\hat F_j:=\bigcup_{i\le j} F_i,\ \ \hat F:=\bigcup_i F_i.$$ $\hat F$ approximates $S$ from inside, but it might not be closed. However, since $\hat F_1\subseteq \hat F_2\subseteq \cdots$ and $\bigcup_i \hat F_i=\hat F$, there must be some $j$ such that $$ \mu(\hat F_j) > \mu(\hat F) - \frac{\epsilon}{2}. $$ Now, $\hat F_j \subseteq S$ is closed, $G\supseteq S$ is open, and $$ \mu(G\setminus \hat F_j)=\mu(G\setminus \hat F)+\mu(\hat F \setminus {\hat F}_j)\le\left( \sum_i \mu(G_i\setminus F_i)\right) +\frac\epsilon 2< \epsilon. $$ This completes the proof that $\cal S$ contains all Borel sets.

Now, to show the first equality in the question, $$ \mu(A)=\inf\{\mu(O) \mid A\subseteq O, O \text{ open}\},\qquad (*)$$ let $A$ be an arbitrary Borel set and let $I_A$ be the right-hand side of $(*)$. If $A\subseteq O$, then $\mu(O)\ge \mu(A)$, so the infimum must also be at least as large as $\mu(A)$: $I_A\ge \mu(A)$. Fix some $\epsilon>0$. Since $A\in\cal S$, there are sets $F$ and $G$ with $F$ closed, $G$ open, $F\subseteq A\subseteq G$, and $\mu(G\setminus F)<\epsilon$. Since $$\mu(G)=\mu(G\setminus A)+\mu(A)<\mu(A)+\epsilon,$$ this shows that $I_A<\mu(A)+\epsilon$. Letting $\epsilon\to 0$, $\mu(A)=I_A$. This proves $(*)$. Since $X$ is assumed to be compact, you can change "compact" to "closed" in the second equality in the question. It can then be proved in the same way as the first equality.

David Moews
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  • But how do I show, from knowing that $\mathcal{S}$ contains all Borel sets the equalities with $\inf$ and $\sup$ in a clean way ? (Intuitively it seems clear, that that's the case, if I can squeeze $A$ between them with measure $<\varepsilon$, but that's not rigorous... –  Mar 12 '13 at 22:24
  • I commented on this in the answer above. – David Moews Mar 13 '13 at 00:08