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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.
In mathematics, and more specifically in order theory, several different types of ordered set have been studied. They include: Cyclic orders, orderings in which triples of elements are either clockwise or counterclockwise; Lattices, partial orders in which each pair of elements has a greatest lower bound and a least upper bound.
A set with a partial order on it is called a partially ordered set, poset, or just ordered set if the intended meaning is clear. By checking these properties, one immediately sees that the well-known orders on natural numbers , integers , rational numbers and reals are all orders in the above sense.
Small finite examples: The three partially ordered sets on the left are trees (in blue); one branch of one of the trees is highlighted (in green). The partially ordered set on the right (in red) is not a tree because x 1 < x 3 and x 2 < x 3, but x 1 is not comparable to x 2 (dashed orange line).
In the mathematical area of order theory, every partially ordered set P gives rise to a dual (or opposite) partially ordered set which is often denoted by P op or P d.This dual order P op is defined to be the same set, but with the inverse order, i.e. x ≤ y holds in P op if and only if y ≤ x holds in P.
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.
The directed preordered set (,) is partially ordered if and only if has exactly one element. All pairs of elements from R {\displaystyle R} are comparable and every element of R {\displaystyle R} is a greatest element (and thus also a maximal element) of ( R , ≤ ) . {\displaystyle (R,\leq ).}
Consider a partially ordered set (X, ≤). As a first simple example, let 1 = {*} be a specified one-element set with the only possible partial ordering. There is an obvious mapping j: X → 1 with j(x) = * for all x in X. X has a least element if and only if the function j has a lower adjoint j *: 1 → X.