[Math] Are Cumulative Distribution Functions measurable

measure-theoryprobability theory

It is well-known that CDFs (Cumulative Distribution Functions) of one-dimensional random variables are Borel measurable. But does the same apply to CDFs of multi-dimensional random variables (rvecs)? It suffices, for my purposes, to consider finite dimensional rvecs.


Relevant definitions

Let $n$ be an integer $\geq 2$.

Call a probability measure over the Borel field on $\mathbb R^n$ an $n$-dimensional probability measure.

To every $n$-dimensional probability measure, $m$, define the following function $F:\mathbb R^n\rightarrow\mathbb R$, called $m$'s CDF: $F(x)=m\left((-\infty, x]\right)$ where $(-\infty, x]$ is the set of all $y$ in $\mathbb R^n$ such that $y\leq x$ component-wise.

An $n$-dimensional CDF is a function $F:\mathbb R^n\rightarrow\mathbb R$ that can be obtained as some $n$-dimensional probability measure's CDF.

$n$-dimensional CDFs are known to be characterized by certain properties.

Best Answer

For any $x \in \mathbb R^n$, consider the measurable box-like function $M_x(y) = m((-\infty,x]) \cdot \mathbb1_{[x,\infty)}(y)$. Here $\mathbb1_{[x,\infty)}(y)$ is the indicator function of "$y \ge x$ component-wise".

It should be easy to show that $F(y) = \sup_{x \in \mathbb Q^n} M_x(y)$ for any $y$ (take an increasing sequence of $x$ converging to $y$), and this makes $F$ the countable supremum of measurable functions.