[Math] Constructing a Measure on the Rational Numbers

measure-theoryreal-analysis

I was wondering if there is any known examples of measures on the set of rational numbers besides Lebesgue measure. In particular, an example of a probability measure on $\mathbb{Q}$ would be nice to see.

Here is a somewhat naive attempt: Let $X = \mathbb{Q}, \Sigma = 2^X $, the sigma algebra which is the set of all subsets of $\mathbb{Q}$. Now for $E \subset \Sigma$ define $m(E) = \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{|E \cap \{ q_1, q_2, …, q_n \}|}{n}$ where $(q_j)_{j=1}^\infty$ is an enumeration of the rationals and $|A|$ denotes the cardinality of a finite set $A$. Is this a probability measure?

Best Answer

No, your suggestion is not a probability measure as it is not additive over countable unions of disjoint sets.

If $t$ is a natural number then $m(\{q_t\})= \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac1n=0$ and so $\sum_t m(\{q_t\})=0$. But $m( \mathbb{Q})= \lim_{n \to \infty}\frac{n}{n}=1$.

You need a discrete measure.

For example $\mathbb{Q} \cap (0,1)$ you could use $m \left( \left\{ \frac{a}{b} \right\}\right) =\frac{\zeta(k)}{\zeta(k-1) - \zeta(k) } \left(\frac{1}{b}\right)^k$ for some $k\gt2$ and $a$ and $b$ coprime; this can be extended to all rationals.