For an invertible probability-preserving transformation TT, a P\mathcal P is generating if the sigma-algebra generated by all cells of T−nPT^{-n}\mathcal P, n∈Zn\in\mathbb Z, equals the whole sigma-algebra modulo null sets. For a noninvertible map, a one-sided generator uses n≥0n\geq0.

Example

In a finite-alphabet two-sided Bernoulli shift, the partition according to the coordinate x0x_0 is generating: its integer translates record every coordinate. One-sided shifts use the corresponding one-sided generator.