Exact functionals and their core (Q1402921): Difference between revisions

In this article the author considers functionals defined on a subset of \(B(2^\Omega)\), the set of bounded functions on the power set of \(\Omega\). He introduces two main classes of functionals: exact functionals are functionals which can be extended to the whole space \(B(2^\Omega)\) to a monotone, super-linear and constant additive functional, exactifiable functionals are functionals which are dominated by exact functionals. Within the article norms \(| \Gamma|\) and \(\| \Gamma \|\) are defined on the set of functionals \(\Gamma : M \to \mathbb{R}\) where \(M \subset B(2^\Omega)\) and a Hahn-Banach type theorem is proven, stating that a functional \(\Gamma\) is exact if and only if \(\| \Gamma \| < \infty\) and under this condition an explicit extension of \(\Gamma\) is constructed. In the same way the author presents a theorem stating that a functional \(\Gamma\) is exactifiable if and only if \(|\Gamma| < \infty\). In the following, relationships to the classical concepts of Choquet integrals, cooperative game theory, lower previsions and the various concepts of the core are drawn. The results obtained here are very interesting in the way that they put all these concepts within the same framework of exact functionals. The results can be summarized as follows: \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] An exact functional is representable as a Choquet integral if it is comonotonic additive and a Choquet integral is an exact functional if it is super-modular. \item[(2)] A set function \(\nu\) is a balanced cooperative game, if \(\nu\) is exactifiable with \(\nu(\Omega) = \nu\) and an exact cooperative game if and only if it is exact. \item[(3)] A functional \(\Gamma\) is a lower prevision avoiding sure loss (see the author's reference [15]) if it is exactifiable and there exists and exactification \(\Gamma^\prime\) s.t. \(\| \Gamma^\prime \| = 1\). \(\Gamma\) is a coherent lower prevision if and only if it is exact and there exists and exact extension \(\Gamma^\prime\) s.t. \(\| \Gamma^\prime \| = 1\). \item[(4)] The core of a functional is non-empty if and only if it is exactifiable. The concept of exact functionals is rich in the way that it allows a lot of methods from Functional Analysis to be applied, therefore the author's results present remarkable contributions to the areas of non additive measure theory, cooperative game theory and risk analysis.\end{itemize}