A compilation of properties of the fundamental concept of mathematical expectation. Not all of these properties are used explicitly in this treatment, but they are included for reference.
We suppose, without repeated assertion, that the random variables and
Borel functions of random variables or random vectors are integrable. Useof an expression such as
involves the tacit assumption that
M is a Borel set on the codomain of
X .
, any constant
a , any event
A
and
for any Borel
sets
(Extends to any finite product of such indicator functions of random vectors)
Linearity . For any constants
(Extends to any finite linear combination)
Positivity; monotonicity .
implies
, with equality iff
implies
, with equality iff
Fundamental lemma . If
is bounded, and
is a.s. nonnegative, nondecreasing, with
for a.e.
ω ,
then
Monotone convergence . If for all
and
,
then
(The theorem also holds if
)
*****
Uniqueness .
is to be read as one of the symbols
for all
M iff
for all
iff
Fatou's lemma . If
, for all
n ,
then
Dominated convergence . If real or complex
,
for
all
n , and
Y is integrable, then
Countable additivity and countable sums .
If
X is integrable over
E , and
(disjoint union),
then
If
, then
and
Some integrability conditions
X is integrable iff both
X
+ and
X
- are integrable
iff
is integrable.
X is integrable iff
as
If
X is integrable, then
X is a.s. finite
If
exists and
, then
Triangle inequality . For integrable
X , real or complex,
Mean-value theorem . If
on
A ,
then
For nonnegative, Borel
Markov's inequality . If
and nondecreasing for
and
, then
Jensen's inequality . If
g is convex on an interval which
contains the range of random variable
X ,
then
Schwarz' inequality . For
real or complex,
, with equality iff
there is a constant
c such that
Hölder's inequality . For
, with
, and
real or complex,
Minkowski's inequality . For
and
real or complex,
Independence and expectation . The following conditions are equivalent.
The pair
is independent
for all Borel
for all Borel
such that
are integrable.
Special case of the Radon-Nikodym theorem If
is integrable and
X is a random vector,
then there exists a real-valued Borel function
, defined on the range of
X , unique a.s.
,
such that
for all Borel
sets
M on the codomain of
X .
Some special forms of expectation
Suppose
F is nondecreasing, right-continuous on
, with
.
Let
. Consider
with
. Then,