Measure, Integration & Real Analysis, 2021a

Section 4B Derivatives of Integrals 113
The next beautiful result shows the power of the techniques developed in this
chapter.
4.24 Lebesgue Density Theorem
Suppose E ⊂ R is a Lebesgue measurable set. Then the density of E is 1 at
almost every element of E and is 0 at almost every element of R \ E.
Proof
First suppose |E| < ∞. Thus χ E
∈L 1 (R). Because
∫ b+t
|E ∩ (b − t, b + t)|
= 1 χ
2t
2t E
b−t
for every t > 0 and every b ∈ R, the desired result follows immediately from 4.21.
Now consider the case where |E| = ∞ [which means that χ E
/∈L 1 (R) and hence
4.21 as stated cannot be used]. For k ∈ Z + , let E k = E ∩ (−k, k). If|b| < k, then the
density of E at b equals the density of E k at b. By the previous paragraph as applied
to E k , there are sets F k ⊂ E k and G k ⊂ R \ E k such that |F k | = |G k | = 0 and the
density of E k equals 1 at every element of E k \ F k and the density of E k equals 0 at
every element of (R \ E k ) \ G k .
Let F = ⋃ ∞
k=1
F k and G = ⋃ ∞
k=1
G k . Then |F| = |G| = 0 and the density of E is
1 at every element of E \ F and is 0 at every element of (R \ E) \ G.
The bad Borel set provided by the next
result leads to a bad Borel measurable
function. Specifically, let E be the bad
Borel set in 4.25. Then χ E
is a Borel
measurable function that is discontinuous
everywhere. Furthermore, the function χ E
cannot be modified on a set of measure 0
to be continuous anywhere (in contrast to
the function χ Q
).
The Lebesgue Density Theorem
makes the example provided by the
next result somewhat surprising. Be
sure to spend some time pondering
why the next result does not
contradict the Lebesgue Density
Theorem. Also, compare the next
result to 4.20.
Even though the function χ E
discussed in the paragraph above is continuous
nowhere and every modification of this function on a set of measure 0 is also continuous
nowhere, the function g defined by
g(b) =
∫ b
χ E
0
is differentiable almost everywhere (by 4.19).
The proof of 4.25 given below is based on an idea of Walter Rudin.
4.25 bad Borel set
There exists a Borel set E ⊂ R such that
0 < |E ∩ I| < |I|
for every nonempty bounded open interval I.
Measure, Integration & Real Analysis, by Sheldon Axler