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A real number x is the least upper bound (or supremum) for S if x is an upper bound for S and x ≤ y for every upper bound y of S. The least-upper-bound property states that any non-empty set of real numbers that has an upper bound must have a least upper bound in real numbers.
There is a corresponding greatest-lower-bound property; an ordered set possesses the greatest-lower-bound property if and only if it also possesses the least-upper-bound property; the least-upper-bound of the set of lower bounds of a set is the greatest-lower-bound, and the greatest-lower-bound of the set of upper bounds of a set is the least ...
Similarly, a function g defined on domain D and having the same codomain (K, ≤) is an upper bound of f, if g(x) ≥ f (x) for each x in D. The function g is further said to be an upper bound of a set of functions, if it is an upper bound of each function in that set.
If (,) is a partially ordered set, such that each pair of elements in has a meet, then indeed = if and only if , since in the latter case indeed is a lower bound of , and since is the greatest lower bound if and only if it is a lower bound. Thus, the partial order defined by the meet in the universal algebra approach coincides with the original ...
Thus, the infimum or meet of a collection of subsets is the greatest lower bound while the supremum or join is the least upper bound. In this context, the inner limit, lim inf X n, is the largest meeting of tails of the sequence, and the outer limit, lim sup X n, is the smallest joining of tails of the sequence. The following makes this precise.
For example, if one takes the function () that is equal to zero everywhere except at = where () =, then the supremum of the function equals one. However, its essential supremum is zero since (under the Lebesgue measure ) one can ignore what the function does at the single point where f {\displaystyle f} is peculiar.
A lattice is an abstract structure studied in the mathematical subdisciplines of order theory and abstract algebra.It consists of a partially ordered set in which every pair of elements has a unique supremum (also called a least upper bound or join) and a unique infimum (also called a greatest lower bound or meet).
An example is the Knaster–Tarski theorem, which states that the set of fixed points of a monotone function on a complete lattice is again a complete lattice. This is easily seen to be a generalization of the above observation about the images of increasing and idempotent functions.