How to Show f=g Almost Everywhere – Real Analysis and Measure Theory

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How to show $f=g$ almost everywhere

Let two real-valued measurable functions $f$ and $g$ be such that for any measurable set $E$ the integrals $\int_E f\,d\mu$ and $\int_E g\,d\mu$ coincide.

Could you please help.

It seems obvious. we could define the integrals as charges. can we do sth from here. but I do not know how to approach.

Best Answer

If $f = g$ a.e. does not hold, then one of the sets

$$A_n := \{x \in X \mid f(x) \geq g(x) + 1/n\}$$

or

$$B_n := \{x \in X \mid g(x) \geq f(x) + 1/n\}$$

has positive measure (why?).

Now assume that $X$ is $\sigma$-finite (or semifinite, otherwise the statement is in general wrong).

Then there exists a subset $E \subset A_n$ or $E \subset B_n$ of positive, finite(!) measure (why?).

Conclude that $\int_E f \, d\mu \neq \int_E g \, d\mu$.

EDIT: As observed in the comments, it is not that easy to show that $\int_E f \,d\mu \neq \int_E g \, d\mu$ if one does not know that the two integrals are actually finite. But to ensure this, we can modify the sets $A_n,B_n$ to

$$ A_n ' = A_n \cap \{x \mid |f(x)|+|g(x)|\leq n\} $$ (similar for $B_n '$) and then use the proof as described above.

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