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Compact Element

Compact elements in order theory are elements that cannot be the supremum of a non-empty directed set that does not already contain elements above the compact element. Compact elements are finite in join-semilattices and correspond to finite sets and compact topological spaces. Algebraic posets have all elements as suprema of compact elements below, and algebraic lattices are complete lattices with this property. Examples include substructures of algebras and congruence relations, where compact elements are finitely generated. Compact elements are important in domain theory as primitive elements that cannot be approximated without containing the element.

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89 views

Compact Element

Compact elements in order theory are elements that cannot be the supremum of a non-empty directed set that does not already contain elements above the compact element. Compact elements are finite in join-semilattices and correspond to finite sets and compact topological spaces. Algebraic posets have all elements as suprema of compact elements below, and algebraic lattices are complete lattices with this property. Examples include substructures of algebras and congruence relations, where compact elements are finitely generated. Compact elements are important in domain theory as primitive elements that cannot be approximated without containing the element.

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mars
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Compact element

In the mathematical area of order theory, the compact 2 Examples


or nite elements of a partially ordered set are those
elements that cannot be subsumed by a supremum of The most basic example is obtained by considering
any non-empty directed set that does not already contain the power set of some set, ordered by subset inclu-
members above the compact element. sion. Within this complete lattice, the compact el-
Note that there are other notions of compactness in math- ements are exactly the nite sets. This justies the
ematics; also, the term "nite" in its normal set theoretic name nite element.
meaning does not coincide with the order-theoretic no-
The term compact is explained by considering the
tion of a nite element.
complete lattices of open sets of some topological
space, also ordered by subset inclusion. Within this
order, the compact elements are just the compact
1 Formal denition sets. Indeed, the condition for compactness in
join-semilattices translates immediately to the cor-
In a partially ordered set (P,) an element c is called com- responding denition.
pact (or nite) if it satises one of the following equivalent
conditions:
3 Algebraic posets
For every directed subset D of P, if D has a supre-
mum sup D and c sup D then c d for some ele- A poset in which every element is the supremum of the
ment d of D. compact elements below it is called an algebraic poset.
For every ideal I of P, if I has a supremum sup I and Such posets which are dcpos are much used in domain
c sup I then c is an element of I. theory.
As an important special case, an algebraic lattice is a
If the poset P additionally is a join-semilattice (i.e., if it complete lattice L, such that every element x of L is the
has binary suprema) then these conditions are equivalent supremum of the compact elements below x.
to the following statement: A typical example (which served as the motivation for the
name algebraic) is the following:
For every nonempty subset S of P, if S has a supre-
mum sup S and c sup S, then c sup T for some For any algebra A (for example, a group, a ring, a eld,
nite subset T of S. a lattice, etc.; or even a mere set without any operations),
let Sub(A) be the set of all substructures of A, i.e., of
all subsets of A which are closed under all operations of
In particular, if c = sup S, then c is the supremum of a
A (group addition, ring addition and multiplication, etc.)
nite subset of S.
Here the notion of substructure includes the empty sub-
These equivalences are easily veried from the deni- structure in case the algebra A has no nullary operations.
tions of the concepts involved. For the case of a join-
Then:
semilattice note that any set can be turned into a directed
set with the same supremum by closing under nite (non-
empty) suprema. The set Sub(A), ordered by set inclusion, is a lattice.

When considering directed complete partial orders or The greatest element of Sub(A) is the set A itself.
complete lattices the additional requirements that the
specied suprema exist can of course be dropped. Note For any S, T in Sub(A), the greatest lower bound of
also that a join-semilattice which is directed complete S and T is the set theoretic intersection of S and T;
is almost a complete lattice (possibly lacking a least el- the smallest upper bound is the subalgebra generated
ement) -- see completeness (order theory) for details. by the union of S and T.

If it exists, the least element of a poset is always compact. The set Sub(A) is even a complete lattice. The great-
It may be that this is the only compact element, as the est lower bound of any family of substructures is
example of the real unit interval [0,1] shows. their intersection.

1
2 5 LITERATURE

The compact elements of Sub(A) are exactly the


nitely generated substructures of A.
Every substructure is the union of its nitely gen-
erated substructures; hence Sub(A) is an algebraic
lattice.

Also, a kind of converse holds: Every algebraic lattice is


isomorphic to Sub(A) for some algebra A.
There is another algebraic lattice which plays an impor-
tant role in universal algebra: For every algebra A we let
Con(A) be the set of all congruence relations on A. Each
congruence on A is a subalgebra of the product algebra
AxA, so Con(A) Sub(AxA). Again we have

Con(A), ordered by set inclusion, is a lattice.

The greatest element of Con(A) is the set AxA,


which is the congruence corresponding to the con-
stant homomorphism. The smallest congruence
is the diagonal of AxA, corresponding to isomor-
phisms.

Con(A) is a complete lattice.


The compact elements of Con(A) are exactly the
nitely generated congruences.
Con(A) is an algebraic lattice.

Again there is a converse: By a theorem of G. Grtzer


and E.T.Schmidt, every algebraic lattice is isomorphic to
Con(A) for some algebra A.

4 Applications
Compact elements are important in computer science in
the semantic approach called domain theory, where they
are considered as a kind of primitive element: the infor-
mation represented by compact elements cannot be ob-
tained by any approximation that does not already con-
tain this knowledge. Compact elements cannot be ap-
proximated by elements strictly below them. On the other
hand, it may happen that all non-compact elements can be
obtained as directed suprema of compact elements. This
is a desirable situation, since the set of compact elements
is often smaller than the original poset the examples
above illustrate this.

5 Literature
See the literature given for order theory and domain the-
ory.
3

6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses


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