Fatou's Lemma - A Counterexample

A Counterexample

A suitable assumption concerning the negative parts of the sequence f₁, f₂, . . . of functions is necessary for Fatou's lemma, as the following example shows. Let S denote the half line [0,∞) with the Borel σ-algebra and the Lebesgue measure. For every natural number n define

This sequence converges uniformly on S to the zero function (with zero integral) and for every x ≥ 0 we even have f_n(x) = 0 for all n > x (so for every point x the limit 0 is reached in a finite number of steps). However, every function f_n has integral −1, hence the inequality in Fatou's lemma fails.