Measurability of cross section measure of a product Borel set

Abstract Suppose μ and ν are Borel measures on locally compact spaces X and Y, respectively. A product measure λ can be defined on the Borel sets of X x Y by the formula λ(M) = ∫ν(Mx) dμ, provided that vertical cross section measure ν(Mx) is a measurable function in x. Conditions are summarized for ν(Mx) to be measurable as a function in x, and examples are given in which the function ν(Mx) is not measurable. It is shown that a dense, countably compact set fails to be a Borel set if it contains no nonempty zero set.