Family of sets
Inset theoryand related branches ofmathematics,afamily(orcollection) can mean, depending upon the context, any of the following:set,indexed set,multiset,orclass.A collectionofsubsetsof a givensetis called afamily of subsetsof,or afamily of setsoverMore generally, a collection of any sets whatsoever is called afamily of sets,set family,or aset system.Additionally, a family of sets may be defined as a function from a set,known as the index set, to,in which case the sets of the family are indexed by members of.[1]In some contexts, a family of sets may be allowed to contain repeated copies of any given member,[2][3][4]and in other contexts it may form aproper class.
A finite family of subsets of afinite setis also called ahypergraph.The subject ofextremal set theoryconcerns the largest and smallest examples of families of sets satisfying certain restrictions.
Examples[edit]
The set of all subsets of a given setis called thepower setofand is denoted byThepower setof a given setis a family of sets over
A subset ofhavingelements is called a-subsetof The-subsetsof a setform a family of sets.
LetAn example of a family of sets over(in themultisetsense) is given bywhereand
The classof allordinal numbersis alargefamily of sets. That is, it is not itself a set but instead aproper class.
Properties[edit]
Any family of subsets of a setis itself a subset of thepower setif it has no repeated members.
Any family of sets without repetitions is asubclassof theproper classof all sets (theuniverse).
Hall's marriage theorem,due toPhilip Hall,gives necessary and sufficient conditions for a finite family of non-empty sets (repetitions allowed) to have asystem of distinct representatives.
Ifis any family of sets thendenotes the union of all sets inwhere in particular, Any familyof sets is a family overand also a family over any superset of
Related concepts[edit]
Certain types of objects from other areas of mathematics are equivalent to families of sets, in that they can be described purely as a collection of sets of objects of some type:
- Ahypergraph,also called a set system, is formed by a set ofverticestogether with another set ofhyperedges,each of which may be an arbitrary set. The hyperedges of a hypergraph form a family of sets, and any family of sets can be interpreted as a hypergraph that has the union of the sets as its vertices.
- Anabstract simplicial complexis a combinatorial abstraction of the notion of asimplicial complex,a shape formed by unions of line segments, triangles, tetrahedra, and higher-dimensionalsimplices,joined face to face. In an abstract simplicial complex, each simplex is represented simply as the set of its vertices. Any family of finite sets without repetitions in which the subsets of any set in the family also belong to the family forms an abstract simplicial complex.
- Anincidence structureconsists of a set ofpoints,a set oflines,and an (arbitrary)binary relation,called theincidence relation,specifying which points belong to which lines. An incidence structure can be specified by a family of sets (even if two distinct lines contain the same set of points), the sets of points belonging to each line, and any family of sets can be interpreted as an incidence structure in this way.
- A binaryblock codeconsists of a set of codewords, each of which is astringof 0s and 1s, all the same length. When each pair of codewords has largeHamming distance,it can be used as anerror-correcting code.A block code can also be described as a family of sets, by describing each codeword as the set of positions at which it contains a 1.
- Atopological spaceconsists of a pairwhereis a set (whose elements are calledpoints) andis atopologyonwhich is a family of sets (whose elements are calledopen sets) overthat contains both theempty setanditself, and is closed under arbitrary set unions and finite set intersections.
Covers and topologies[edit]
A family of sets is said tocovera setif every point ofbelongs to some member of the family. A subfamily of a cover ofthat is also a cover ofis called asubcover. A family is called apoint-finite collectionif every point oflies in only finitely many members of the family. If every point of a cover lies in exactly one member, the cover is apartitionof
Whenis atopological space,a cover whose members are allopen setsis called anopen cover. A family is calledlocally finiteif each point in the space has aneighborhoodthat intersects only finitely many members of the family. Aσ-locally finiteorcountably locally finite collectionis a family that is the union of countably many locally finite families.
A coveris said torefineanother (coarser) coverif every member ofis contained in some member ofAstar refinementis a particular type of refinement.
Special types of set families[edit]
ASperner familyis a set family in which none of the sets contains any of the others.Sperner's theorembounds the maximum size of a Sperner family.
AHelly familyis a set family such that any minimal subfamily with empty intersection has bounded size.Helly's theoremstates thatconvex setsinEuclidean spacesof bounded dimension form Helly families.
Anabstract simplicial complexis a set family(consisting of finite sets) that isdownward closed;that is, every subset of a set inis also in Amatroidis an abstract simplicial complex with an additional property called theaugmentation property.
Everyfilteris a family of sets.
Aconvexity spaceis a set family closed under arbitrary intersections and unions ofchains(with respect to theinclusion relation).
Other examples of set families areindependence systems,greedoids,antimatroids,andbornological spaces.
Familiesof setsover | ||||||||||
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Is necessarily true of or, isclosed under: |
Directed by |
F.I.P. | ||||||||
π-system | ![]() |
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Semiring | ![]() |
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Never |
Semialgebra(Semifield) | ![]() |
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Never |
Monotone class | ![]() |
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only if | only if | ![]() |
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𝜆-system(Dynkin System) | ![]() |
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only if |
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only ifor they aredisjoint |
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Never |
Ring(Order theory) | ![]() |
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Ring(Measure theory) | ![]() |
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Never |
δ-Ring | ![]() |
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Never |
𝜎-Ring | ![]() |
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Never |
Algebra(Field) | ![]() |
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Never |
𝜎-Algebra(𝜎-Field) | ![]() |
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Never |
Dual ideal | ![]() |
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Filter | ![]() |
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Never | Never | ![]() |
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Prefilter(Filter base) | ![]() |
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Never | Never | ![]() |
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Filter subbase | ![]() |
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Never | Never | ![]() |
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Open Topology | ![]() |
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Never |
Closed Topology | ![]() |
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Never |
Is necessarily true of or, isclosed under: |
directed downward |
finite intersections |
finite unions |
relative complements |
complements in |
countable intersections |
countable unions |
contains | contains | Finite Intersection Property |
Additionally, asemiringis aπ-systemwhere every complementis equal to a finitedisjoint unionof sets in |
See also[edit]
- Algebra of sets– Identities and relationships involving sets
- Class (set theory)– Collection of sets in mathematics that can be defined based on a property of its members
- Combinatorial design– Symmetric arrangement of finite sets
- δ-ring– Ring closed under countable intersections
- Field of sets– Algebraic concept in measure theory, also referred to as an algebra of sets
- Generalized quantifier– Expression denoting a set of sets in formal semantics
- Indexed family– Collection of objects, each associated with an element from some index set
- λ-system (Dynkin system)– Family closed under complements and countable disjoint unions
- π-system– Family of sets closed under intersection
- Ring of sets– Family closed under unions and relative complements
- Russell's paradox– Paradox in set theory (orSet of sets that do not contain themselves)
- σ-algebra– Algebraic structure of set algebra
- σ-ring– Family of sets closed under countable unions
Notes[edit]
- ^P. Halmos,Naive Set Theory,p.34. The University Series in Undergraduate Mathematics, 1960. Litton Educational Publishing, Inc.
- ^Brualdi 2010,pg. 322
- ^Roberts & Tesman 2009,pg. 692
- ^Biggs 1985,pg. 89
References[edit]
- Biggs, Norman L. (1985),Discrete Mathematics,Oxford: Clarendon Press,ISBN0-19-853252-0
- Brualdi, Richard A. (2010),Introductory Combinatorics(5th ed.), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall,ISBN0-13-602040-2
- Roberts, Fred S.; Tesman, Barry (2009),Applied Combinatorics(2nd ed.), Boca Raton: CRC Press,ISBN978-1-4200-9982-9
External links[edit]
Media related toSet familiesat Wikimedia Commons