Strictly positive measures on Boolean algebras

Abstract

We investigate strictly positive finitely additive measures on Boolean algebras and strictly positive Radon measures on compact zerodimensional spaces. The motivation is to find a combinatorial characterisation of Boolean algebras which carry a strictly positive finitely additive finite measure with some additional properties, such as separability or nonatomicity. A possible consistent characterisation for an algebra to carry a separable strictly positive measure was suggested by Talagrand in 1980, which is that the Stone space K of the algebra satisfies that its space M(K) of measures is weakly separable, equivalently that C(K) embeds into l^∞. We show that there is a ZFC example of a Boolean algebra (so of a compact space) which satisfies this condition and does not support a separable strictly positive measure. However, we use this property as a tool in a proof which shows that under MA+\neg CH every atomless ccc Boolean algebra of size < 𝔠 carries a nonatomic strictly positive measure. Examples are given to show that this result does not hold in ZFC. Finally, we obtain a characterisation of Boolean algebras that carry a strictly positive nonatomic measure in terms of a chain condition, and we draw the conclusion that under MA+\neg CH every atomless ccc Boolean algebra satisfies this stronger chain condition.