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An infimum of a set is always and only defined relative to a superset of the set in question. For example, there is no infimum of the positive real numbers inside the positive real numbers (as their own superset), nor any infimum of the positive real numbers inside the complex numbers with positive real part.
In mathematical analysis, limit superior and limit inferior are important tools for studying sequences of real numbers.Since the supremum and infimum of an unbounded set of real numbers may not exist (the reals are not a complete lattice), it is convenient to consider sequences in the affinely extended real number system: we add the positive and negative infinities to the real line to give the ...
This concept is also called supremum or join, and for a set S one writes sup(S) or for its least upper bound. Conversely, the greatest lower bound is known as infimum or meet and denoted inf(S) or . These concepts play an important role in many applications of order theory.
The supremum of B is then equal to the infimum of X: since each element of X is an upper bound of B, sup B is smaller than all elements of X, i.e. sup B is in B. It is the greatest element of B and hence the infimum of X. In a dual way, the existence of all infima implies the existence of all suprema.
An example is given by the power set of a set, partially ordered by inclusion, for which the supremum is the union and the infimum is the intersection. Another example is given by the natural numbers, partially ordered by divisibility, for which the supremum is the least common multiple and the infimum is the greatest common divisor.
Limit inferior and limit superior are more general terms that represent the infimum and supremum (respectively) of all limit points of a set. The limit inferior and limit superior of a sequence (or a function) are specializations of this definition. Therefore, the limit inferior, limit superior, and limit all fail to exist at x=2 in the example.
In mathematics, the limit of a sequence of sets,, … (subsets of a common set ) is a set whose elements are determined by the sequence in either of two equivalent ways: (1) by upper and lower bounds on the sequence that converge monotonically to the same set (analogous to convergence of real-valued sequences) and (2) by convergence of a sequence of indicator functions which are themselves ...
Exactly in the same way one defines the essential infimum as the supremum of the essential lower bound s, that is, = {: ({: <}) =} if the set of essential lower bounds is nonempty, and as otherwise; again there is an alternative expression as = {: ()} (with this being if the set is empty).