last updated: May 9, 2024

Probability with Measure

4.8 Lebesgue integration of complex valued functions \((\Delta )\)

The definition of the Lebesgue integral can be extended to complex valued functions. Let \((S, \Sigma , m)\) be a measure space and \(f:S \rightarrow \C \). We can always write \(f = f_1 + if_2\), where the real and imaginary parts are \(f_{i}:S \rightarrow \R ~(i=1,2)\). If both \(f_1\) and \(f_2\) are measurable then we say that \(f\) is measurable1. If both \(f_1\) and \(f_2\) have integrals according to Definition 4.5.1 then we define

\[ \int _{S}f \,dm = \int _{S}f_{1}\,dm + i\int _{S}f_{2} \,dm.\]

Recall that for \(z=x+iy\in \C \), where \(x\) and \(y\) are the real and imaginary parts of \(f\), we define \(|z|=(x^2+y^2)^{1/2}\). Correspondingly, we make the pointwise definition that when \(f:S\to \C \), \(|f|=(f_1+f_2)^{1/2}\). Note that \(|f|:S\to \R \). This allows us to define a complex version of \(\Lone \), given by