1. Introduction
MV-algebras, being generalizations of Boolean algebras, were introduced by Chang [
1] and used in the analysis of many-valued logic. Since this time, the theory of MV-algebras (see [
2] and the references therein) has been considerably developed. The role of MV-algebras in the theory of quantum structures was discussed in [
3,
4].
Carathéodory defined the basic notions of point-free probability, replacing Kolmogorovian probability measures on
-algebras by strictly positive probability measures on
-complete Boolean algebras and random variables, defined within the Kolmogorov probability theory as measurable functions on the event space
, by functions from the
-algebra of Borel subsets of
into the
-Boolean algebra of events (see, e.g., [
5]). The MV-algebraic probability theory generalizes the Boolean theory of probability, built by Carathéodory and von Neumann. In this paper, we assume that a state
on an MV-algebra
M is a normalized
-additive functional. Therefore, for each observable
, the function
of the form
,
, is a probability measure. Another notion of a state, which is not considered in this paper, was introduced by Mundici [
6] as a normalized additive functional
. The
-additivity of such a functional is obtained via the Kroupa–Panti theorem (see, e.g., Mundici [
7]) and Riesz representation.
Main theorems of the MV-algebraic probability theory, including the basic version of the central limit theorem (CLT), laws of large numbers, and the individual ergodic theorem, can be found in [
4,
8,
9]. In the MV-algebraic setting, there exist three versions of the SLLN (see [
4,
8]). The first one concerns the convergence of an independent sequence
of square-integrable observables in a probability MV-algebra
, satisfying the Kolmogorov condition (K):
where
is the variance of
,
. The analogous version of the SLLN was proven for a strongly independent sequence
of square-integrable weak observables, satisfying (K). The third MV-algebraic version of the strong law of large numbers concerns the convergence of a ⊙-independent sequence
of square-integrable weak observables, satisfying (K), under the additional assumption that the considered MV-algebra
M is weakly
-distributive. Generalized versions of the MV-algebraic central limit theorem, i.e., the Lindeberg and Lyapunov CLT, as well as the Feller theorem were proven by Nowak and Hryniewicz [
10]. It is important to underline that, similar to in the Kolmogorov probability theory, the MV-algebraic versions of central limit theorem and strong law of large numbers are different types of theorems, since they concern different types of convergence of scaled sums of observables, i.e., the convergence in distribution in the first case and the convergence m-almost everywhere in the second case.
The MV-algebraic probability theory was also applied in the Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy sets and interval-valued fuzzy sets settings (see, e.g., [
11,
12,
13,
14,
15,
16,
17,
18]). The notion of probability for the Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy sets was introduced by Szmidt and Kacprzyk [
19]. Some interesting aspects of the MV-algebraic probability theory were also studied in [
20,
21,
22,
23], etc.
As we have mentioned before, Riečan proved the MV-algebraic version of the SLLN for independent observables satisfying the Kolmogorov condition. This is a counterpart of the classical Kolmogorov theorem for independent square-integrable random variables, which is important for the Kolmogorov probability theory. However, in many practical problems, its assumptions are not satisfied, e.g., in the case where the second moments of the random variables do not exist or the random variables are dependent. In such situations, other strong laws of large numbers, including the Marcinkiewicz–Zygmund, Brunk–Prokhorov, and Korchevsky SLLN, are effective tools. In this paper, we prove generalized versions of the SLLN, i.e., the Marcinkiewicz–Zygmund, Brunk–Prokhorov, and Korchevsky SLLN, within the MV-algebraic probability theory, applying their classical counterparts and some measure-theoretic methods. The first two theorems, which were also proven by the authors in a non-MV-algebraic interval-valued fuzzy sets setting (see [
24]), are devoted to sequences of independent observables in a probability MV-algebra, whereas the last one concerns observables taking values in a probability MV-algebra with the product, and their independence is not required. Since the above-mentioned classical versions of the SLLN are very useful from the theoretical point of view, we believe that their MV-algebraic counterparts will contribute to further development of the MV-algebraic probability theory, including the theory of stochastic processes in the MV-algebraic setting, and will be very useful for its applications to estimation methods.
We present three examples of the applications of the Marcinkiewicz–Zygmund, Brunk–Prokhorov, and Korchevsky SLLN for sequences of observables with convergent scaled sums. In particular, independent identically continuously distributed, as well as both independent and dependent discretely-distributed observables are considered.
The problem of entropy estimation is important from both theoretical and practical points of view. Classical versions of the law of large numbers are used in this field. In particular, the authors of [
25,
26,
27] applied the SLLN to the analysis of the estimation of information theoretic measures, including entropy and Kullback–Leibler divergence. On the other hand, in [
28], the concept of logical entropy was studied in the case of the family of IF-events, which can be embedded into a suitable MV-algebra. The results obtained in this paper are treated by us as tools to introduce methods of estimation of logical entropy, as well as other types of entropy in the case mentioned above.
The paper is organized as follows.
Section 2 contains notations and selected elements of the MV-algebraic probability theory. The main results are presented in
Section 3. The MV-algebraic versions of the Marcinkiewicz–Zygmund, Brunk–Prokhorov, and Korchevsky SLLN are proven there. Examples of applications of the SLLNs are discussed in
Section 4. The paper is concluded in
Section 5.
2. Preliminaries
We present some notations that are used in the paper.
We denote by and the set of real numbers and positive integers, respectively. For , the symbol denotes the -algebra of Borel subsets of .
Let and be two measurable spaces. A mapping is measurable if for each .
For each real-valued random variable X on a probability space , we denote by the expected value of X and by (for ) the absolute moment of X with respect to P (if they exist).
Selected Elements of the MV-Algebraic Probability Theory
The foundations of the theory of MV-algebras can be found in [
2]. In this section, we recall only basic definitions and facts concerning MV-algebras and the MV-algebraic probability theory based on [
4,
10].
Definition 1. An MV-algebrais an algebra, where M is a non-empty set, the operation ⊕ is associative and commutative with zero as the neutral element,and for each:In an MV-algebra, a partial order is defined by the relation:The underlying lattice of M is the distributive latticewith the least element zero and the greatest element one, where the join and the meet are defined as follows:for each. Definition 2. An MV-algebra M is called σ-complete (complete) if every sequence (non-empty set, respectively) of elements of M has the supremum in M.
For a non-empty set X and an MV-algebra M, we introduce the notations:
for
for
for
Definition 3. Given a σ-complete MV-algebra M, a functionis called a state on M if it satisfies the following conditions for eachand:
- (i)
- (ii)
if, then
- (iii)
if, then
A state m on M is called faithful iffor each non-zero element x of M.
Definition 4. A probability MV-algebra is a pairconsisting of a σ-complete MV-algebra M and a faithful state m on M.
If
is a probability MV-algebra, then
M is complete (see Theorem 13.8 in [
7]).
Definition 5. Given a σ-complete MV-algebra M, a functionis called an n-dimensional observable in M if it satisfies the following conditions:
- (i)
- (ii)
andfor eachsuch that
- (iii)
for each
Theorem 1. Given M a σ-complete MV-algebra, an n-dimensional observable, and a state m on M, the functiondescribed by:is a probability measure on. The proof of the above theorem can be found in [
10].
Definition 6. Letbe a probability MV-algebra. We call an observableintegrable inif the expectationexists. Moreover, we writeforifwhereis the absolutemoment of x. If, then the variance of x is given by the formula.
Definition 7. Observablesin a probability MV-algebraare said to be independent (with respect to m) if there exists an n-dimensional observable(called the joint observable of) such that for arbitrary: Remark 1. Letbe independent observables in a probability MV-algebraandbe their joint observable. Then, for arbitrary Borel measurable function, the mapping given by:is an observable. Convergence almost everywhere of observables in a probability MV-algebra was defined by Riečan and Mundici [
4].
Definition 8. A sequenceof observables in a probability MV-algebrais said to converge to zero m-almost everywhere (m-a.e.), if: 3. Generalized Versions of the MV-Algebraic Strong Law of Large Numbers
3.1. The Kolmogorov Probability Space of Observables
In the further part of this section, we will use the Kolmogorov probability space of observables considered by Riečan and Mundici [
4].
Let
be a sequence of independent observables in a probability MV-algebra
Let
be the space of all sequences of real numbers. Let
be the collection of cylinders of
, i.e., the collection of all sets
, where
and
is finite. The probability measure
is uniquely described by:
for every
of the above form.
We call the triplet the Kolmogorov probability space of the observables in
For each
, we define the
coordinate random variable
and
coordinate random vector
by the formulas:
We recall a shortened version of Proposition 2.14 from [
4].
Proposition 1. Letbe a probability MV-algebra andbe a sequence of independent observables in, withbeing the joint observable of. Letbe the Kolmogorov probability space of the observablesin. For eachletbe an arbitrary Borel function. Let further the observablebe defined byand the random variablebe described by. Then:and the convergence ofto zero P-a.s.implies the convergence ofto zero m-a.e. 3.2. Generalized SLLN for Independent Observables
In this section, we formulate and prove MV-algebraic counterparts of the Marcinkiewicz–Zygmund and Brunk–Prokhorov SLLN (see
Appendix A).
In the following part of the paper, in formulas containing integrals, we will assume that for an appropriate value of .
Let
and
be measurable spaces and a function
be
measurable. For a given measure
on
, the
image measure on
has the form:
We will use the following lemma (a generalization of Lemma 3.2 from [
10]), which shows the form of the expected value of a Borel function of an observable.
Lemma 1. Letbe a probability MV-algebra and. Then, for any-valued Borel functionand observablesin, the expected valueexists if and only if:Furthermore, if the above condition is satisfied, then: Proof. Let
,
, and
. By Theorem 1,
is a probability measure. Furthermore, by straightforward computations, we obtain:
Therefore, application of the following change of variable formula (see Theorem 16.12 in [
29]):
ends the proof. □
The MV-algebraic version of the Marcinkiewicz–Zygmund SLLN concerns the case of independent observables belonging to for and a normalizing sequence that is a suitable power of n as follows.
Theorem 2. Given a probability MV-algebra, letbe an independent sequence of observables inhaving the same distribution. Let,,forandfor. Then:converges to zero m-a.e. Proof. Let
be the Kolmogorov probability space of the observables
in
. The sequence
of the coordinate random variables is independent and identically distributed, i.e.,
Thus, applying Lemma 1, we obtain:
Then,
for
and
for
. For each
, we denote by
the joint observable of
, by
the function:
and by
the observable:
We also introduce the sequence of random variables
, assuming that
. From Theorem A1, it follows that
converges to zero a.s. By Proposition 1:
and
converges to zero
m-a.e. □
The following MV-algebraic version of the Brunk–Prokhorov SLLN concerns sequences of observables that are not necessarily identically distributed.
Theorem 3. Let. Given a probability MV-algebra, letbe an independent sequence of observables insuch that,for each. Let:Then: Proof. We denote by
the Kolmogorov probability space of the observables
in
For the independent sequence
of the coordinate random variables, by Lemma 1,
Therefore, by (
6) and Theorem A2,
Thus, applying Proposition 1 for
of the form:
we obtain the convergence:
□
3.3. Generalized SLLN for Non-Negative Observables
In this subsection, we consider the convergence of observables in a probability MV-algebra with product , i.e., a probability MV-algebra with an additional associative and commutative binary operation such that for each : ; .
Remark 2. Letbe observables in a probability MV-algebra with product. By Proposition 2.4 from [4], each probability MV-algebra is weakly σ-distributive. Therefore, Theorem 3.6 from [4] implies that there exists an n-dimensional observablesuch that for arbitrary:called the joint observable of. Moreover, for arbitrary Borel measurable function, the formula:defines a one-dimensional observable. Let
be a sequence of observables in a probability MV-algebra with product
. Let for each
be the joint observable of
, defined in the above remark. Then, analogous to the case of probability MV-algebra, the application of the Kolmogorov consistency theorem for probability measures
implies the existence of exactly one probability measure
such that for each
and
,
, where
is given by (
3). We call the triplet
the
Kolmogorov probability space of the observables in
. Both
and
are random variables on
.
The following proposition is a consequence of Theorem 3.17 and Proposition 3.16 from [
4].
Proposition 2. Letbe a probability MV-algebra with product andbe a sequence of observables in, withbeing the joint observable of. Letbe the Kolmogorov probability space of the observablesin. For eachletbe an arbitrary Borel function. Let further the observablebe defined byand the random variablebe described by. Then, the convergence ofto zero P-a.s. implies the convergence ofto zero m-a.e.
We formulate and prove the main theorem of this subsection. For its classical counterpart and some notations, we refer the reader to
Appendix A.
Theorem 4. Let observablesin a probability MV-algebra with productbe non-negative, i.e.,and their absolute moments of some orderbe finite. Letbe a non-decreasing unbounded sequence of positive numbers. If, where:and:where ψ is a function belonging to, then: Proof. Let
be the Kolmogorov probability space of the observables
in
. Let for arbitrary
the functions
be given by:
random variables
,
have the forms
and observables:
be defined as in Remark 2. The distributions of coordinate random variables
are given by:
Moreover,
Applying Lemma 1, we obtain:
and:
Clearly,
Finally, application of Theorem A3 for the sequence of random variables
and Proposition 2 for the sequence of Borel functions:
ends the proof. □
We also present two special cases of the above theorem, corresponding to Theorem 2 and 3, formulated by Korchevsky [
30] within the Kolmogorov probability theory.
Theorem 5. Let observablesin a probability MV-algebra with productbe non-negative and have finite variances. Letbe a non-decreasing unbounded sequence of positive numbers. Ifand:for some function, then: Theorem 6. Let observablesin a probability MV-algebra with productbe non-negative and have finite absolute moments of some order. Letbe a sequence of positive numbers,,and:for some function. Then: Theorem 5 follows from Theorem 4 applied for , whereas Theorem 6 is a consequence of Theorem 4 for arbitrary , the sequence of observables , , and the sequence of real numbers , .