scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1099339

Publication date 5 January 1998

Lebesgue integrals Lebesgue measure textbook

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to measure and integration (28-01) History of measure and integration (28-03)

Review text

Editor's abstract: ``This book is designed to give the reader a solid understanding of Lebesgue measure and integration. It focuses on only the most fundamental concepts, namely Lebesgue measure for \(\mathbb{R}\) and Lebesgue integration for extended real-valued functions on \(\mathbb{R}\). Starting with a thorough presentation of the preliminary concepts of undergraduate analysis, this book covers all the important topics, including measure theory, measurable functions, and integration. It offers an abundance of support materials, including helpful illustrations, examples, and problems. To further enhance the learning experience, the author provides a historical context that traces the struggle to define ``area and ``area under a curve that led eventually to Lebesgue measure and integration. The first chapter of this book (``Historical highlights) is an illuminating \textit{promenade} from Eudoxos to Lebesgue. (The reader will appreciate in particular the description of Fermat's method of calculating \(\int^b_0 x^r dx\), where \(r\) is a positive rational number.) In the second chapter, the author gives us the complete analysis equipment necessary to study measure and integration, starting with operations on sets and concluding with Weierstrass' theorem about series of functions. The third chapter is devoted to Lebesgue measure and measurable sets (including Borel sets); the fourth to measurable functions. (Here the author gives the reader a highly pedagogical proof of Egoroff's theorem.) The fifth and final chapter is a masterpiece, starting with the Riemann integral and culminating with the Dominated Convergence Theorem. Five appendices are devoted, respectively, to: 1) Cantor's set; 2) a Lebesgue nonmeasurable set; 3) a Lebesgue measurable set, not Borel; 4) a space filling curve and 5) an everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable function. Let us remark that some classical topics are missing: the Lebesgue space \(L_1\), the Radon-Nikodým theorem. The author's aim is not to be exhaustive, but to focus on Lebesgue measure and integral on the real line. This book is very rich and particularly clear; it contains a lot of good exercises and many graphics. The reviewer, who himself is teaching integration theory to French \textit{licence} students, doesn't know an equivalent of this book by Frank Burk in the mathematical literature (with the exception of ``Leçons sur l'intégration et la recherche des fonctions primitives, 2nd ed. (1950; Zbl 0041.02301), by \textit{H. Lebesgue}). It will be a reference text for every course in measure theory and integration, both for advanced undergraduate or first-year graduate courses. Students also will appreciate such a book.

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