1. Introduction
It is known that the probability and randomness theory is the theoretical basis for studying and dealing with the problem of the uncertainty of whether or not an event happened. The fuzzy set theory is the theoretical basis for studying and dealing with the problem of the uncertainty of the boundary of an event concept (for example, see [
1,
2]). The theory from combination of random theory and fuzzy set theory can be used to study and deal with the problem with these two mixed uncertainty attributes.
On the combination of random theory and fuzzy set theory, many scholars have engaged in, or are engaging in the work in this area. For example, in [
3], Zadeh defined the probability of a fuzzy set as the expectation of its membership function; in [
4], Khalili studied the independence between fuzzy events; in [
5], Smets introduced the concept of the conditional probability of a fuzzy event; in [
6], Baldwin, Lawry and Martin discussed the problem of the conditional probability of fuzzy subsets of a continuous domain; in [
7], Buoncristiani investigated probability on
-fuzzy sets; in [
8], Lee and Li determined an order of fuzzy numbers (about fuzzy numbers, we can see [
9,
10,
11,
12]) based on the concept of probability measure of fuzzy events due to Zadeh; in [
13], Heilpern defined the expected value of fuzzy variables, and investigated its properties; in [
14], Gil gave a discussion on treating fuzziness as a kind of randomness in studying statistical management of fuzzy elements in random experiments; in [
15], Flaminio and Godo proposed a logic for reasoning about the probability of fuzzy events; in [
16], Kato, Izuka et al. proposed a new fuzzy probability distribution function containing fuzzy numbers as its parameters; in [
17], Xia provided a fuzzy probability system, which has a more original theoretical starting point, and appears to deal with such uncertainty as has subjectivity and fuzziness; in [
18], Tala
ov
and Pavla
ka defined a fuzzy probability space that enables an adequate mathematical modeling of expertly set uncertain probabilities of states of the world; in [
19], Biacino extended the definition of belief function to fuzzy events starting from a basic assignment of probability on some fuzzy focal events and using a suitable notion of inclusion for fuzzy subsets; in [
20,
21], Kßi
and Leblebicio
lu studied the problems of fuzzy discrete event systems; in [
22], Kahraman and Kaya made an investment analysis by using the concept of probability of a fuzzy event.
Recently, there has still been a lot of work on the theory and application of the combination of randomness and fuzziness. For example, in 2012, Liu and Dziong formalized the notion of codiagnosability for decentralized diagnosis of fuzzy discrete-event systems, in which the observability of fuzzy events is defined to be fuzzy instead of crisp in [
23]; in 2014, Purba, Lu, Zhang and Pedrycz developed a fuzzy reliability algorithm to effectively generate basic event failure probabilities without reliance on quantitative historical failure data through qualitative data processing in [
24]; in 2015, Purba and Tjahyani et al. proposed a fuzzy probability based fault tree analysis to propagate and quantify epistemic uncertainty raised in basic event reliability evaluations to complement conventional fault tree analysis which can only evaluate aleatory uncertainty in [
25]; in [
26], Zhao and Hu took fuzzy probability and interval-valued fuzzy probability into consideration; in 2016, Lower, Magott and Skorupski presented a new approach as previous research in analyzing Air Traffic Incidents has focused more on defining accident occurrence probabilities in [
27]; in [
28], Chutia and Datta proposed the fuzzy random variable valued Gumbel, Weibull and Gaussian functions, and discussed fundamental properties of these functions in the fuzzy probability space; in 2017, Coletti, Petturiti and Vantaggi introduced the concept of possibility of a fuzzy event, and provided a comparison with the probability of a fuzzy event in [
29].
While many results have been obtained in the theory and application of the combination of random theory and fuzzy set theory, the work has not yet reached a perfect degree. In the aspect of the theoretical research results, the researchers generally study the combination of the two theory only from the point of view of mathematics (only from the mathematical theory itself), this leads to that the obtained theoretical results may look (from the point of view of mathematics) very beautiful, but they lack application background, and it is difficult to get real application in engineering or practical problems. In the aspect of the applied research work, researchers often only focus on an isolated specific problem, the used theory (of combination of random theory and fuzzy set theory) is still in the initial stage, lacking in depth, and the obtained results are also lacking in systematicness.
In order to establish the systematic theory of “random fuzzy sets” and “random fuzzy numbers” with strong usability, in this paper, we do some preliminary research work. From the introduction of basic fuzzy events, we give some concepts such as basic fuzzy event space, fuzzy events, probability distribution on basic fuzzy event space, probability fuzzy space and so on, investigate their related properties, and propose some specific models of probability distribution of probability fuzzy space based on a known probability space, which have a strong application background. Specific arrangements are as follows: In
Section 2, we briefly review some basic notions and definitions which will be used in this paper; in
Section 3, we define the concepts of basic fuzzy event, fuzzy event and basic fuzzy event space, investigate related properties, and obtain some results that will be used in the next section; in
Section 4, we introduce the definitions of the probability function about fuzzy events and probability fuzzy space, obtain some properties of the defined probability function, propose some models of probability distribution of probability fuzzy space based on a known probability space, and give some examples to show the using of the proposed models of probability distribution. In
Section 5, we make a summary of this paper.
2. Basic Definition and Notation
Let be nonempty set (in this paper, we denote the empty set by ). We denote the collection of all subsets of by . A mapping is called a fuzzy subset (in short, a fuzzy set) of . We denote the collection of all fuzzy sets of by .
For a fuzzy set of of , we denote its -level set by for any , i.e., , and denote its strong -level set by for any , i.e., . By we denote the support of , i.e., the set .
Let be a basic event space. If be a -algebra, i.e., satisfies the following properties:
- (1)
;
- (2)
if and only if , where is the complement of A;
- (3)
for any , .
then we say is an event set, and call A an event if .
If be a algebra, i.e., the Condition (3) for any , is replaced with (3’) for any , then we say is a finite intersection event set.
Let R be the real field. For basic event space and event set , if mapping satisfies the axioms of Kolmogorov:
- (1)
for any ;
- (2)
;
- (3)
for any () with ( and ),
then we call P a probability distribution function on , and say is a probability space.
If is a finite intersection event set, and the Condition (3) for any () with ( and ) is replaced with (3’) for any with , then we call P a finitely additive probability distribution function on , and say is a finitely additive probability space.
3. Basic Fuzzy Event Space
In order to establish the relevant theory of probability fuzzy space, in this section, we are going to give the following concepts of fuzzy basic events and fuzzy basic event space, and investigate their related properties:
Definition 1. Let Ω be a basic event space. For and , we define fuzzy set of Ω as:and call it a basic fuzzy event of Ω. We denote , and call the basic fuzzy event space (generated by Ω). It is obvious that . Therefore we can establish a one-to-one correspondence between and , so we can directly use to represent , i.e., we can denote , where is the Cartesian product of and .
Definition 2. Let Ω be a basic event space. If (i.e., ), then we say is a fuzzy event, and call the set (denoted by or ) basic event support set (in short, support) of .
It is obvious that for , if and only if there exists such that .
Definition 3. Let Ω be a basic event space. We define mapping asand call canonical mapping of fuzzy events (with respect to Ω). Remark 1. Let Ω be a basic event space, . It is obvious that . In addition, for convenience, we denote by (resp. by ) for any .
Remark 2. Let Ω be a basic event space. For a (i.e., , we see that is a classical set (collection) whose elements are some basic fuzzy events. However, according to the canonical mapping , we can regard as a fuzzy set of Ω (i.e., an element in ).
For two nonempty sets , we denote .
Proposition 1. Let Ω be a basic event space. We have
- (1)
for any with ;
- (2)
for any with and , ⟺;
- (3)
for any , ⟺ () ⟺ ();
- (4)
for any , ⟺ () ⟺ ();
- (5)
for any , .
Proof. (1) For any , from , we see that . Therefore, by the definition of canonical mapping , we have that .
(2) Let and . Then, ⟺ there exists such that and ⟺ there exists such that ⟺;
(3) By Remark (1), we see that and (), and (). So from ⟺ () ⟺ (), we know that Conclusion (3) holds;
(4) By the Conclusion (3), we can directly obtain the Conclusion (4);
(5) To prove the Conclusion (5) of the proposition, we only need show that
for any
. In fact,
□
Remark 3. The canonical mapping is not one-to-one mapping (see the following Example 1).
Example 1. let , and . Then and . However, from and , we know .
Proposition 2. Let Ω be a basic event space, . Thenfor any . Proof. For any , we have that . Therefore if , then there exists such that . Therefore we see that . If , i.e., for any , then we see that . □
By Proposition 2, we can easily obtain the following corollary:
Corollary 1. Let Ω be a basic event space. Then and .
Let be a basic event space, and . If , then (by the Conclusion (2) of Proposition 1), so, by , we have that ; If , then (by the Conclusion (2) of Proposition 1), so, by Proposition 2, we have that . Therefore, we have the following corollary:
Corollary 2. Let Ω be a basic event space, . Then for any , we have that For the convenience of the following discussion, we give the following concepts associated with fuzzy events:
Definition 4. Let Ω be a basic event space and (i.e., ). If for each fixed , the r (if it exists) with and is unique (i.e., is empty set or a single point set), then we call a simple fuzzy event. We denote , and call simple fuzzy event space.
For a basic event space and a real number , we denote .
Remark 4. It is obvious that for any , and for any .
Restricting the canonical mapping on , we can obtain a mapping (denoted by ) from into .
Proposition 3. Let Ω be a basic event space, . Then Proof. If and , we know that . □
About the mapping , we have the following result:
Proposition 4. Let Ω be a basic event space. Then is an injective mapping (i.e., one-to-one mapping).
Proof. Let with . To prove that the proposition is established, we only need show that , i.e., only need show that there exists such that . In fact, from , we know that there exists such that , or there exists such that .
(1) As there exists such that , from , we have that by Proposition 3; From , we can prove that (in fact, if there exists such that , then ; if for any , , then ). Therefore we see that . Thus, as long as we take , we have ;
(2) As there exists such that , in the same way, we can show that as long as we take , we have . □
Proposition 5. Let Ω be a basic event space. Then is a surjection (i.e., surjective mapping).
Proof. In order to complete the proof of the proposition, we only prove that for any , there exists such that . For the fixed , we take , then . In the following, we show that , i.e., for any :
(1) As , i.e., , then for any , so by Proposition 2, we have that ;
(2) As , i.e., , then , so by Proposition 3, we have that . □
Remark 5. By Propositions 4 and 5, we see that there exists a one-to-one correspondence from onto . So we can regard and as the same.
Proposition 6. Let Ω be a basic event space. For the inverse mapping , we have that .
Proof. Defining mapping as for any , then by the proof of Proposition 5, we see that for any , so . □
Proposition 7. Let Ω be a basic event space. Then for any , , and we have thatwhere, for . Proof. For each fixed
and
,
is unique, so
. Therefore, we just have to prove
, i.e., only need to show that
. In fact, for any
, by Propositions 2 and 3, we have that
so
holds □
Definition 5. Let Ω be a basic event space, . We call the simplistic fuzzy event of fuzzy event , and denote it by .
Example 2. Let , . Then , and by Proposition 7, we have .
Proposition 8. Let Ω be a basic event space. Then for any with .
Proof. Let
. We denote
and
for any
. From
and
, we can see that
Therefore, by the definition of the simplistic fuzzy event of fuzzy event and Proposition 7, we have that
□
4. Probability Fuzzy Space
Let be a basic event space. By the definitions of basic fuzzy event space (generated by ), -level set of fuzzy set and strong -level set of fuzzy set and Remark 2, we can see that for any , , and ().
It is known that for a probability space (where, is a basic event space, is a event space, is a probability function), the event space should keep the closeness of operations of union, intersection and difference. However, due to the complexity of the structure of , it is often difficult to make a subset (i.e., a collection of some fuzzy events) of keeping the closeness of operations of union, intersection and difference. Therefore, when we introduce a probability fuzzy space , we do not claim that () keeps the closeness of operations of union, intersection and difference; we only claim that satisfies for any and .
Owing to the complexity of structures of and , and the non-closeness of operations of union, intersection and difference of , when we introduce a probability fuzzy space , if we still let probability function satisfy and for any , and the additivity of : for any () with ( and ) like we define probability space , then we can not guarantee the rationality of probability function (see the following Example 3).
Example 3. If we defined , and , then is a probability space. By the definition of , we see that . Letwhere , , , , and, . Then satisfies for any and . If we define as , , , , , , and , then satisfies for any () with ( and ). Generally speaking, and should be regarded as basic fuzzy evens and . Therefore, from , we consider that should be defined as . However, this is not consistent with the definition . So we think that such defined has some irrationality. From the above analysis, we know that in order to define a rational probability function on , we have to change this Condition (that is: for any () with ( and )) to make it reasonable. Considering the complexity of the structures of and , we propose to replace the irrational additivity of with the following rational conditions: (1) for any with ; (2) for any () with ( and ).
Definition 6. Let Ω be a basic event space, be the basic fuzzy event space generated by Ω, and with . If satisfies
- (1)
;
- (2)
;
- (3)
for any with ;
- (4)
for any () with ( and ),
then we call a probability fuzzy space.
Remark 6. - (i)
From the Conditions 2 and 3 in Definition 6, we see that for any .
- (ii)
If the Condition (4) for any () with ( and ) is replaced with Condition (4’) for any with , then we call a finitely additive probability fuzzy space.
Lemma 1. Let be a probability fuzzy space. For any with , we have that .
Proof. For any , by Definition 2, we see that there exists such that , i.e., and . It is implied that (by Definition 2) and (if not, then there exists with such that ). This is contradictory to ), i.e., . Thus, we have proved
Conversely, for any , we know that and , i.e., there exists such that , and for any . Therefore, we see that and , i.e., , so . Thus, we have proved . □
Proposition 9. Let be a probability fuzzy space (or a finitely additive probability fuzzy space). Then
- (1)
;
- (2)
for any positive integer N and () with ( and );
- (3)
for any with ;
- (4)
for any with ;
- (5)
(i.e., for any ;
- (6)
for any with and , where ;
- (7)
for any with , where ;
Proof. (1) Let (). Then () and ( and ), so by the Condition (4) in Definition 6, we have that . It implies ;
(2) Let N is a positive integer, () with ( and ), and (). Then ;
(3) From , by Conclusion (1) of Proposition 1, we see . Therefore, by Condition (3) of Definition 6, we directly know that Conclusion (3) of the proposition holds;
(4) implies that and . So by the Condition (3) in Definition 6, we see that and , so we have that ;
(5) For any , we have that . So by the Conclusion (4), we see that ;
(6) From
and
, by Lemma 1, we can show that
(if not, then there exist
and
. By Lemma 1, we have that
and
, so we obtain contradictory conclusions:
and
). By Proposition 2, we have that
for any
, so
. Therefore, by Conclusion (2), we have that
, so
;
(7) For any fixed , by the definition of , and from , we see that and . Therefore, by the Conclusion (6), we can directly obtain the Conclusion (7).
Theorem 1. Let be a probability space, and . For fixed , if is defined bythen is a probability fuzzy space (we call it strong--probability fuzzy space generated by ). Proof. Since is a probability space, we have that (1) for any ; (2) ; (3) for any with ( and ).
(1) For , , from the definition of , we see that the Condition (1) in Definition 6 holds;
(2) For , , we have that , so the Condition (2) in Definition 6 also holds;
(3) Let with . By the Conclusion (2) of Proposition 1, we see that (). Therefore, (), so the Condition (3) in Definition 6 also holds;
(4) Let () with ( and ). From and , we know that and , so for any ( and ). Therefore we have that . Thus we have shown that the Condition (4) in Definition 6 also holds.
By the Definition 6, we see that for any , is a probability fuzzy space. □
Theorem 2. Let Ω be a finite set, be a probability space, and . For any , if is defined bythen is a probability fuzzy space (we call it the -probability fuzzy space generated by ). Proof. The proof of the theorem is similar to the proof of Theorem 1, and we omit it. □
Remark 7. In the proof of the conclusion 4 of Theorem 1, the fact (that is well known) is used. However, it is also well known that is not true (it is just right in finite cases, i.e., is true, where N is a positive integer), so, generally speaking, the condition “Ω is a finite set” cannot be missed in Theorem 2. However, since is true, we can see the following result holds:
Theorem 3. Let be a probability space, and . For any , if is defined by Equality (2), then is a finitely additive probability fuzzy space (we call it the finitely additive -probability fuzzy space generated by ).
Example 4. By statistical methods, we obtain the possibility that a person may be in target shooting as follows: The possibility of hitting the i ring is (); the possibility of missing the target (we say to hit the 0 ring) is . Let “hitting the i ring”, , , and be defined as and , . Then is a probability space, that characterizes the possibility that the person may be in target shooting. Let , then is the -probability fuzzy space generated by .
If we use discrete fuzzy numbers , and represent fuzzy events “Better hitting result”, “Good hitting result” and “Very good hitting result”, respectively. Then , and express, respectively, that at the confidence level value , the probability that the person would get better shooting result in one shooting is , that at the confidence level value , the probability that the person would get good shooting result in one shooting is , and that at the confidence level value , the probability that the person would get very good shooting result in one shooting is .
Of course, these results change with the change of the level value. The level value characterizes the reliability of these results. For example, if we take the level value as , then we have that , and . It tells us that at the confidence level value , the probability that the person would get a better shooting result in one shooting is ; the probability that the person would get a good shooting result in one shooting is ; and the probability that the person would get a very good shooting result in one shooting is .
Theorem 4. Let Ω be a countable set (including finite set), be a probability space, and . If is defined asthen is a probability fuzzy space. Proof. (1) For any
, from
for any
, we have that
On the other hand, by Equality (3), the correctness of
is obvious. Therefore, the Condition (1) in Definition 6 holds;
(2) , so the Condition (2) in Definition 6 holds;
(3) Let
with
.
so the Condition (3) in Definition 6 holds;
(4) Let
(
) with
(
and
). From
and
, we know that
and
, so
for any
(
and
). Therefore we have that
Thus we have shown that the Condition (4) in Definition 6 also holds.
By the Definition 6, we see that is a probability fuzzy space. □
Definition 7. Let Ω be a countable set (including finite set), be a probability space. If and is defined as in Theorem 4, then we call the probability fuzzy space generated by , and denote the probability function and the generated probability fuzzy space as and , respectively.
Remark 8. By the definition of (see the Formula (3)), we directly see that Example 5. In Example 4, let be the probability fuzzy space generated by . Then by Equality (3), we have that , and , that express, respectively, that the probability that the person would get better shooting result in one shooting is , that the probability that the person would get good shooting result in one shooting is , and that the probability that the person would get very good shooting result in one shooting is .
Since , () and () are all especial probability functions, not only the conclusions (1)–(7) all hold for them, but also they posses the following property:
Proposition 10. Let Ω be a countable set (including finite set), be a probability space and be the generated probability fuzzy space. Then
- (1)
for any with , where (it obviously implies that );
- (2)
for any , where , (it obviously implies that ).
Proof. (1) By the definition of
and Corollary 2, we have that
so
;
(2) From , by Conclusion (1), we have that . □
Proposition 11. Let be a probability space, and be the generated finitely additive -probability fuzzy space (). Then
- (1)
for any with ;
- (2)
for any , where .
Proof. (1) By the definition of
and Corollary 2, we have that
so
;
(2) By Conclusion (1), we can directly obtain Conclusion (2). □
Proposition 12. Let be a probability space, and be the generated strong--probability fuzzy space (). Then
- (1)
for any with ;
- (2)
for any , where . □
Proof. The proof of the proposition is similar to the proof of Proposition 11, so we omit it. □