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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.
A totally ordered set is a partially ordered set in which any two elements are comparable. The Szpilrajn extension theorem states that every partial order is contained in a total order. Intuitively, the theorem says that any method of comparing elements that leaves some pairs incomparable can be extended in such a way that every pair becomes ...
Thus, another way of stating Sperner's theorem is that the width of the inclusion order on a power set is (⌊ / ⌋). A graded partially ordered set is said to have the Sperner property when one of its largest antichains is formed by a set of elements that all have the same rank. In this terminology, Sperner's theorem states that the partially ...
An antichain in is a subset of in which each pair of different elements is incomparable; that is, there is no order relation between any two different elements in . (However, some authors use the term "antichain" to mean strong antichain , a subset such that there is no element of the poset smaller than two distinct elements of the antichain.)
An antichain in a partially ordered set is a set of elements no two of which are comparable to each other, and a chain is a set of elements every two of which are comparable. A chain decomposition is a partition of the elements of the order into disjoint chains. Dilworth's theorem states that, in any finite partially ordered set, the largest ...
In a partially ordered set there may be some elements that play a special role. The most basic example is given by the least element of a poset. For example, 1 is the least element of the positive integers and the empty set is the least set under the subset order. Formally, an element m is a least element if: m ≤ a, for all elements a of the ...
For two elements a, b of a partially ordered set P, the interval [a,b] is the subset {x in P | a ≤ x ≤ b} of P. If a ≤ b does not hold the interval will be empty. Interval finite poset. A partially ordered set P is interval finite if every interval of the form {x in P | x ≤ a} is a finite set. [2] Inverse. See converse. Irreflexive.
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.