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. □