[Math] Conditional expectation constant on part of partition

conditional-expectationprobability theoryrandom variables

I have a question about conditional expectation, while looking for the answer here on stackexchange I noticed that there are a few different definitions used, so I will first give the definitions I use:

Let conditional expectation be defined as on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_expectation#Formal_definition).
Lets work on a probability space $(\Omega, \mathcal{F}, \mathbb{P})$ and random variable $X$. Let $\Lambda = (\Lambda_1,…,\Lambda_M)$ be a partition of $\Omega$. And let $Y$ be a conditional expectation $\mathbb{E}(X | \sigma(\Lambda))$, that is $Y$ is $\sigma(\Lambda)$-measurable and
$$\int_H Y d\mathbb{P} = \int_H X d\mathbb{P} \text{ for any }H \in \sigma(\Lambda)$$

Now it seems that $Y(\omega) = \mathbb{E}(X|\sigma(\Lambda_i))(\omega)$ if $\omega \in \Lambda_i$. My question is, is this true, if so why and if not what does $Y$ look like on $\Lambda_i$.

Best Answer

Note that $$Y=\sum_kE(X\mid\Lambda_k)\,\mathbf 1_{\Lambda_k},$$ and that, for every $i$, $$E(X\mid\sigma(\Lambda_i))=E(X\mid\Lambda_i)\,\mathbf 1_{\Lambda_i}+E(X\mid\Omega\setminus\Lambda_i)\,\mathbf 1_{\Omega\setminus\Lambda_i},$$ hence indeed, for every $i$ and every $\omega$ in $\Lambda_i$, $$Y(\omega)=E(X\mid\Lambda_i)=E(X\mid\sigma(\Lambda_i))(\omega).$$ Thus, on $\Lambda_i$, the random variables $Y$ and $E(X\mid\sigma(\Lambda_i))$ are both constant and both equal to the number $E(X\mid\Lambda_i)$.