Check whether some events regarding $\limsup$ are tail events.

measure-theoryprobabilityprobability theory

Let $\{X_n, n\in\mathbb Z\}$ be independent random variables. Denote by $\sigma(X_m, m\geq n)$ the smallest $\sigma$-field on which all $X_m (m\geq n)$ are measurable. The intersection $\mathcal T=\bigcap_n\sigma(X_m, m\geq n)$ is called the tail $\sigma$-field. I need to prove the following (they come from Example 2.5.2 from Durrett's Probability: Theory and Examples).

Below, $S_n=X_1+\cdots+X_n$.

  1. $\{\lim_n S_n\text{ exists}\}\in\mathcal T$

  2. $\{\limsup_n S_n>0\}\notin\mathcal T$

  3. $\{\limsup_n S_n/c_n>x\}\in\mathcal T$ if $c_n\to\infty$.

My attempt is to rewrite these sets first:

  1. By Cauchy's criterion,
    $$\{\lim_n S_n\text{ exists}\}=\bigcap_{k\geq1}\bigcap_{N\geq1}\bigcup_{m,n\geq N}\{|S_n-S_m|<1/k\}$$

  2. $$\{\limsup_n S_n>0\}=\bigcap_{N\geq1}\bigcup_{n\geq N}\{S_n>0\}$$

  3. $$\{\limsup_n S_n/c_n>x\}=\bigcap_{N\geq1}\bigcup_{n\geq N}\{S_n/c_n>x\}$$

But after this I don't know how to continue.

Best Answer

For any $k$. $\lim S_n$ exists iff $\lim_n (X_k+X_{k+1}+...+X_n)$ exists. Applying your expression for the event $(\lim S_n)$ exists for the sequence $X_k,X_{k+1},...$ we see that the event '$\lim_n (X_k+X_{k+1}+...+X_n)$ exists' belongs to $\sigma (X_k,X_{k+1},...)$. Since this is true for each $k$ it follows that the event '$\lim S_n$ exists ' belongs to the tail sigma field. The argument for the other two cases are similar. For the third case you have to observe that $S_k /c_n \to 0$ for each $k$ so the given event does not change if you replace $(X_k)$ by the sequence $(X_k,X_{k+1},...)$.