1

There are uncountably many binary sequences

whose limiting relative frequency is x.
Mariusz Popieluch, April 12, 2015
The proof will proceed with reference to subsets of and their natural densities, but it
should be noted that each result about subsets of can be transformed to a corresponding
result about binary sequences that are characteristic functions of the sets in question. I.e.,
for each , the characteristic function of is defined as the function : { , } ,
such that = if , else = . Such binary sequences, in this context, have
the intended interpretation of Bernoulli processes.
SOME USEFUL DEFINITIONS AND LEMMAS
(i)

Let and for any let = { , , }

and = | |. Natural (or
asymptotic) density of is defined as the limit on the left, below (if the limit exists):

= lim

lrf = lim

To that value, there corresponds the limit on the right, which is the limiting relative
frequency , denoted lrf, of the binary sequence (derived from ). I just prese ti g
this correspondence here, to stress that it exists, but the discussion will make reference
only to subsets of and their natural densities, as I believe this approach contributes
to the clarity of the argument. So a result about the cardinality of families of subsets of
with some fixed natural density, corresponds to a result about the cardinality of
families of binary sequences with some fixed limiting relative frequency.

(ii) For each [ , ] there exists a set such that

= .
Proof: Take some equidistributed sequence { } in [ , ] and define a monotone
family { }[ , ] of sets: = { < }. Then, by definition = , for
all . I only need one such sequence { } and its above property for the main proof.
The existence of such a sequence is guaranteed by the equidistribution theorem.

(iii) The set of all the infinite subsets of the set of all primes , is uncountable.

(iv) That = is a well-known fact. But also, for each

= .
Proof: this is an immediate consequence of the definition of natural density: if is the
[]| | []| for each , where [] =
set of primes, and , then |
{ , , }. In this case the limits exist by the squeeze theorem, since zero is a lower
[]|/, and the upper bound of | []|/ tends to zero.
bound for |

(v) If
= > and
= , then
= , where
denotes the
symmetric difference of sets and , defined as
=
.
Moreover
= , since
=
and the fact that
has
density zero.
Proof on next page.

PROOF
Take an element from the family { }[ , ] given in (ii). It follows that = .
Next, the idea is to rid of all of its prime elements, without altering its natural density. This

follo s directly from . Lets denote, with

= = ,
, and note that

by (v). Now, since for each = , then it follows that

= for each

, by (iv) and (v). This holds for each , by (ii). Hence |{

}| = | | for

each . Hence |{
}| is uncountable, by (ii), for each [ , ], as required.

However, the above cardinal equality rests on the key fact that for all , if ,

then

, for each . In other words, the above result is conditioned on thus
generated sets maintaining the natural density of
, whilst remaining distinct sets. But this

holds by virtue of the construction of for each . For suppose

=
, then

by definition of symmetric difference,

and given that

= for all , by the careful construction of , it follows that

. That implies that = , as required.