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A partially ordered set (poset for short) is an ordered pair = (,) consisting of a set (called the ground set of ) and a partial order on . When the meaning is clear from context and there is no ambiguity about the partial order, the set X {\displaystyle X} itself is sometimes called a poset.
If a partially ordered set is finite, its covering relation is the transitive reduction of the partial order relation. Such partially ordered sets are therefore completely described by their Hasse diagrams. On the other hand, in a dense order, such as the rational numbers with the standard order, no element covers another.
The order dual of a partially ordered set is the same set with the partial order relation replaced by its converse. Order-embedding. A function f between posets P and Q is an order-embedding if, for all elements x, y of P, x ≤ y (in P) is equivalent to f(x) ≤ f(y) (in Q). Order isomorphism.
A partially ordered set with least element 0 is called atomistic (not to be confused with atomic) if every element is the least upper bound of a set of atoms. The linear order with three elements is not atomistic (see Fig. 2). Atoms in partially ordered sets are abstract generalizations of singletons in set theory (see Fig. 1).
Lattices, partial orders in which each pair of elements has a greatest lower bound and a least upper bound. Many different types of lattice have been studied; see map of lattices for a list. Partially ordered sets (or posets), orderings in which some pairs are comparable and others might not be
A given partially ordered set may have several different completions. For instance, one completion of any partially ordered set S is the set of its downwardly closed subsets ordered by inclusion. S is embedded in this (complete) lattice by mapping each element x to the lower set of elements that are less than or equal to x.
If the preordered set (,) also happens to be a partially ordered set (or more generally, if the restriction (,) is a partially ordered set) then is a maximal element of if and only if contains no element strictly greater than ; explicitly, this means that there does not exist any element such that and .
In mathematics, a hierarchy is a set-theoretical object, consisting of a preorder defined on a set. This is often referred to as an ordered set, though that is an ambiguous term that many authors reserve for partially ordered sets or totally ordered sets. The term pre-ordered set is