A function of two variables can be integrated against a product measure in one stroke, or one variable at a time in either order; that the three agree, under a single hypothesis, is the content of the Fubini and Tonelli theorems. The construction starts from the sigma-algebras and measures of the previous post and the Lebesgue integral built on them, and it is the tool that turns independence into a product and a convolution into a double integral [1]. Throughout, and are sigma-finite, meaning each space is a countable union of sets of finite measure.
#The product sigma-algebra and sections
The product sigma-algebra on is the sigma-algebra generated by the measurable rectangles with and .
A set built from rectangles can be sliced. For and , the section is , and for a function on the section is . Slicing preserves measurability, the property on which every later proof depends.
For every and every , the section is in . For every -measurable , every section is -measurable.
Let be the collection of whose every section lies in . A rectangle has section if and otherwise, both in , so contains the rectangles. Sectioning commutes with set operations, and , so is a sigma-algebra. It contains the generating rectangles, hence all of . The function statement follows by slicing a preimage, , which is measurable for Borel .
#The product measure
To assign a rectangle the area and extend, integrate the size of a section. First, must be measurable.
For the map is -measurable, and symmetrically is -measurable.
Assume first . Let be the class of for which is measurable. Rectangles lie in since . For disjoint , additivity of on the disjoint sections gives , a sum of measurable functions, so finite disjoint unions stay in , and the finite-measure case gives , so is closed under complement. For an increasing sequence the sections rise, and continuity of from below makes a pointwise limit of measurable functions, so is closed under increasing limits. These properties make a Dynkin system, while the rectangles are closed under intersection, , so they form a pi-system. Dynkin's pi-lambda theorem gives . For general sigma-finite , write with and increasing, apply the finite case to each , and let using continuity from below.
There is a unique measure on with for all rectangles, given by
By Lemma 3 both integrals are defined. Set . Then , and for disjoint the sections are disjoint, so countable additivity of and the monotone convergence theorem give , so is a measure. On a rectangle . The symmetric integral defines a measure agreeing with on rectangles, and the rectangles form an intersection-closed generating system on which both measures are sigma-finite, so by the uniqueness of measures on a generating system the two integrals coincide and define the unique product measure.
#Tonelli and Fubini
The product measure was built from sections of sets. Tonelli's theorem lifts the identity from indicators to all nonnegative measurable functions.
If is -measurable, then is measurable and
For the inner integral is and the identity is exactly Equation (1). Linearity extends it to nonnegative simple functions. A general nonnegative measurable is the increasing pointwise limit of simple functions , and the monotone convergence theorem applied twice, once in the inner integral and once in the outer, carries the identity through the limit, the measurability of surviving as a limit of measurable functions. The same argument in the other order gives the second equality.
Tonelli requires only nonnegativity; with no negative part there is no to resolve. For signed or complex functions the price is integrability, and the result is Fubini's theorem.
If is -integrable, then is -integrable for -almost every , the almost-everywhere-defined map is -integrable, and both iterated integrals equal .
Apply Theorem 5 to , which is integrable, so . A nonnegative function with finite integral is finite almost everywhere, so for -almost every , that is is integrable for almost every . Split into its nonnegative and nonpositive parts, each dominated by and so integrable. Tonelli applies to and separately, and subtracting the two finite iterated integrals, legitimate because both are finite, gives the iterated integral of equal to . The other order is identical. For complex apply this to and separately, each integrable since , and recombine.
Both hypotheses are sharp. Without sigma-finiteness the two iterated integrals and can disagree, so no consistent product measure is determined by the section formula. Take Borel, Lebesgue, counting, and the diagonal ; then while . Without integrability the kernel on the unit square, for which , has and . The first inner integral comes from , giving for every (the single point is -null and does not affect the outer integral), and the second from the antisymmetry , giving . The working rule is therefore Tonelli first, to check by an iterated integral of the nonnegative , then Fubini, to exchange the order for itself.
The theorem is the engine behind several later constructions. The independence of random variables is exactly the statement that their joint law is the product of their marginals, so an expectation of a product factors by Tonelli. The convolution that smooths a density and the Gaussian integral that normalises it are double integrals evaluated by switching order. Product measure is the model for independent sources of randomness, and every multivariate argument later in the curriculum builds on it.