Pathological linear spaces and submeasures

Abstract

Let K be a compact Hausdorff space and let )~ be a probability measure on K. We denote by Lo(K,2) the space of all Borel functions f:K--*N with the topology of convergence in measure. Lo(K, 2) is an F-space (complete metric topological vector space) if, as usual, we identify functions equal almost everywhere. Spaces of the type Lo(K,2 ) are probably the most studied examples of non-locally convex topological vector spaces. In spite of their bad reputation there is some evidence that they are in fact rather well-behaved spaces. Thus for a general topological vector space X it is often very useful to be able to produce nontrivial linear operators T:X--*Lo(K,2 ), in the same way as linear functionals facilitate the theory of locally convex spaces. We shall say that a point xeX is pathological it wherever T:X-*Lo(K, 2) is a continuous linear operator then Tx=O. X is pathological if every xsX is pathological. Note that if X is separable then it suffices in the definition to take K =(0, 1) with Lebesgue measure. The first example of a pathological F-space was given in 1973 by Christensen and Herer [3]. A more natural example is the space Lp/Hp where 0 < p < 1 (see [1, 5]). However the Christensen-Herer example also showed the connection with pathological submeasures. We recall that if d is an algebra of subsets of some abstract set L then a submeasure 4~:d--,lR is a map satisfying ~b(A)<_~b(AwB)<d~(A)+O(B) and th(O) = 0. 4~ is said to be pathological (see [3, 11]) if whenever 2 : d ~ N is a (finitelyadditive) measure with 0 <)~(A) < th(A) (At d ) then )~0. Now if S(~) denotes the space of all simple d-measurable functions f:L~IR, then S(~) can be topologized by the topology of convergence in @measure (functions differing only on a set of @measure zero are identified). The completion of S(~) in this topology may be denoted by A(~b). Then A(q~) is pathological