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Antisymmetric relation

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Transitive binary relations
Symmetric Antisymmetric Connected Well-founded Has joins Has meets Reflexive Irreflexive Asymmetric
Total, Semiconnex Anti-
reflexive
Equivalence relation Green tickY Green tickY
Preorder (Quasiorder) Green tickY
Partial order Green tickY Green tickY
Total preorder Green tickY Green tickY
Total order Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY
Prewellordering Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY
Well-quasi-ordering Green tickY Green tickY
Well-ordering Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY
Lattice Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY
Join-semilattice Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY
Meet-semilattice Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY
Strict partial order Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY
Strict weak order Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY
Strict total order Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY Green tickY
Symmetric Antisymmetric Connected Well-founded Has joins Has meets Reflexive Irreflexive Asymmetric
Definitions, for all and
Green tickY indicates that the column's property is always true the row's term (at the very left), while indicates that the property is not guaranteed in general (it might, or might not, hold). For example, that every equivalence relation is symmetric, but not necessarily antisymmetric, is indicated by Green tickY in the "Symmetric" column and in the "Antisymmetric" column, respectively.

All definitions tacitly require the homogeneous relation be transitive: for all if and then
A term's definition may require additional properties that are not listed in this table.

In mathematics, a binary relation on a set is antisymmetric if there is no pair of distinct elements of each of which is related by to the other. More formally, is antisymmetric precisely if for all or equivalently, The definition of antisymmetry says nothing about whether actually holds or not for any . An antisymmetric relation on a set may be reflexive (that is, for all ), irreflexive (that is, for no ), or neither reflexive nor irreflexive. A relation is asymmetric if and only if it is both antisymmetric and irreflexive.

Examples

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The divisibility relation on the natural numbers is an important example of an antisymmetric relation. In this context, antisymmetry means that the only way each of two numbers can be divisible by the other is if the two are, in fact, the same number; equivalently, if and are distinct and is a factor of then cannot be a factor of For example, 12 is divisible by 4, but 4 is not divisible by 12.

The usual order relation on the real numbers is antisymmetric: if for two real numbers and both inequalities and hold, then and must be equal. Similarly, the subset order on the subsets of any given set is antisymmetric: given two sets and if every element in also is in and every element in is also in then and must contain all the same elements and therefore be equal: A real-life example of a relation that is typically antisymmetric is "paid the restaurant bill of" (understood as restricted to a given occasion). Typically, some people pay their own bills, while others pay for their spouses or friends. As long as no two people pay each other's bills, the relation is antisymmetric.

Properties

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Symmetric and antisymmetric relations

Partial and total orders are antisymmetric by definition. A relation can be both symmetric and antisymmetric (in this case, it must be coreflexive), and there are relations which are neither symmetric nor antisymmetric (for example, the "preys on" relation on biological species).

Antisymmetry is different from asymmetry: a relation is asymmetric if and only if it is antisymmetric and irreflexive.

See also

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References

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  • Weisstein, Eric W. "Antisymmetric Relation". MathWorld.
  • Lipschutz, Seymour; Marc Lars Lipson (1997). Theory and Problems of Discrete Mathematics. McGraw-Hill. p. 33. ISBN 0-07-038045-7.
  • nLab antisymmetric relation