Filters in topologyFilters in topology, a subfield of mathematics, can be used to study topological spaces and define all basic topological notions such as convergence, continuity, compactness, and more. Filters, which are special families of subsets of some given set, also provide a common framework for defining various types of limits of functions such as limits from the left/right, to infinity, to a point or a set, and many others. Special types of filters called have many useful technical properties and they may often be used in place of arbitrary filters.
Duality (order theory)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 Pop or Pd. This dual order Pop is defined to be the same set, but with the inverse order, i.e. x ≤ y holds in Pop if and only if y ≤ x holds in P. It is easy to see that this construction, which can be depicted by flipping the Hasse diagram for P upside down, will indeed yield a partially ordered set. In a broader sense, two partially ordered sets are also said to be duals if they are dually isomorphic, i.
Join and meetIn mathematics, specifically order theory, the join of a subset of a partially ordered set is the supremum (least upper bound) of denoted and similarly, the meet of is the infimum (greatest lower bound), denoted In general, the join and meet of a subset of a partially ordered set need not exist. Join and meet are dual to one another with respect to order inversion. A partially ordered set in which all pairs have a join is a join-semilattice. Dually, a partially ordered set in which all pairs have a meet is a meet-semilattice.
PreorderIn mathematics, especially in order theory, a preorder or quasiorder is a binary relation that is reflexive and transitive. Preorders are more general than equivalence relations and (non-strict) partial orders, both of which are special cases of a preorder: an antisymmetric (or ) preorder is a partial order, and a symmetric preorder is an equivalence relation. The name comes from the idea that preorders (that are not partial orders) are 'almost' (partial) orders, but not quite; they are neither necessarily antisymmetric nor asymmetric.
Finite intersection propertyIn general topology, a branch of mathematics, a non-empty family A of subsets of a set is said to have the finite intersection property (FIP) if the intersection over any finite subcollection of is non-empty. It has the strong finite intersection property (SFIP) if the intersection over any finite subcollection of is infinite. Sets with the finite intersection property are also called centered systems and filter subbases. The finite intersection property can be used to reformulate topological compactness in terms of closed sets; this is its most prominent application.
Directed setIn mathematics, a directed set (or a directed preorder or a filtered set) is a nonempty set together with a reflexive and transitive binary relation (that is, a preorder), with the additional property that every pair of elements has an upper bound. In other words, for any and in there must exist in with and A directed set's preorder is called a direction. The notion defined above is sometimes called an . A is defined analogously, meaning that every pair of elements is bounded below.
Upper setIn mathematics, an upper set (also called an upward closed set, an upset, or an isotone set in X) of a partially ordered set is a subset with the following property: if s is in S and if x in X is larger than s (that is, if ), then x is in S. In other words, this means that any x element of X that is to some element of S is necessarily also an element of S. The term lower set (also called a downward closed set, down set, decreasing set, initial segment, or semi-ideal) is defined similarly as being a subset S of X with the property that any element x of X that is to some element of S is necessarily also an element of S.
