In mathematics, more precisely in measure theory, Lebesgue's decomposition theorem states that for every two σ-finite signed measures
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These two measures are uniquely determined by
Refinement
Lebesgue's decomposition theorem can be refined in a number of ways.
First, the decomposition of the singular part of a regular Borel measure on the real line can be refined:
where
Second, absolutely continuous measures are classified by the Radon–Nikodym theorem, and discrete measures are easily understood. Hence (singular continuous measures aside), Lebesgue decomposition gives a very explicit description of measures. The Cantor measure (the probability measure on the real line whose cumulative distribution function is the Cantor function) is an example of a singular continuous measure.
Lévy–Itō decomposition
The analogous decomposition for a stochastic processes is the Lévy–Itō decomposition: given a Lévy process X, it can be decomposed as a sum of three independent Lévy processes