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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 ...
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).
In mathematics, the least-upper-bound property (sometimes called completeness, supremum property or l.u.b. property) [1] is a fundamental property of the real numbers. More generally, a partially ordered set X has the least-upper-bound property if every non-empty subset of X with an upper bound has a least upper bound (supremum) in X .
An element of is called the meet (or greatest lower bound or infimum) of and is denoted by , if the following two conditions are satisfied: m ≤ x and m ≤ y {\displaystyle m\leq x{\text{ and }}m\leq y} (that is, m {\displaystyle m} is a lower bound of x and y {\displaystyle x{\text{ and }}y} ).
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.
The supremum of finite sets is given by the least common multiple and the infimum by the greatest common divisor. For infinite sets, the supremum will always be 0 while the infimum can well be greater than 1. For example, the set of all even numbers has 2 as the greatest common divisor.
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.