What is a compact element?












1












$begingroup$


I was reading the definition of an Algebraic Lattice: "An algebraic lattice is a complete lattice L, such that every element x of L is the supremum of the compact elements below x".

Then I looked for the formal definition of a compact element and It apperead really messy to me ( mentioning directed subsets and ideals).

Then I looked, always on wikipedia, for some examples to gain some intuition but all they provided is:

-"The most basic example is obtained by considering the power set of some set, ordered by subset inclusion. Within this complete lattice, the compact elements are exactly the finite sets. This justifies the name "finite element"."
Which is not helpful at all.



-"The term "compact" is explained by considering the complete lattices of open sets of some topological space, also ordered by subset inclusion. Within this order, the compact elements are just the compact sets. Indeed, the condition for compactness in join-semilattices translates immediately to the corresponding definition."
Which is too complicated for me.



I hope someone can present an informal explanation, or some intuitve examples at least, that may clarify the concept.










share|cite|improve this question









$endgroup$

















    1












    $begingroup$


    I was reading the definition of an Algebraic Lattice: "An algebraic lattice is a complete lattice L, such that every element x of L is the supremum of the compact elements below x".

    Then I looked for the formal definition of a compact element and It apperead really messy to me ( mentioning directed subsets and ideals).

    Then I looked, always on wikipedia, for some examples to gain some intuition but all they provided is:

    -"The most basic example is obtained by considering the power set of some set, ordered by subset inclusion. Within this complete lattice, the compact elements are exactly the finite sets. This justifies the name "finite element"."
    Which is not helpful at all.



    -"The term "compact" is explained by considering the complete lattices of open sets of some topological space, also ordered by subset inclusion. Within this order, the compact elements are just the compact sets. Indeed, the condition for compactness in join-semilattices translates immediately to the corresponding definition."
    Which is too complicated for me.



    I hope someone can present an informal explanation, or some intuitve examples at least, that may clarify the concept.










    share|cite|improve this question









    $endgroup$















      1












      1








      1





      $begingroup$


      I was reading the definition of an Algebraic Lattice: "An algebraic lattice is a complete lattice L, such that every element x of L is the supremum of the compact elements below x".

      Then I looked for the formal definition of a compact element and It apperead really messy to me ( mentioning directed subsets and ideals).

      Then I looked, always on wikipedia, for some examples to gain some intuition but all they provided is:

      -"The most basic example is obtained by considering the power set of some set, ordered by subset inclusion. Within this complete lattice, the compact elements are exactly the finite sets. This justifies the name "finite element"."
      Which is not helpful at all.



      -"The term "compact" is explained by considering the complete lattices of open sets of some topological space, also ordered by subset inclusion. Within this order, the compact elements are just the compact sets. Indeed, the condition for compactness in join-semilattices translates immediately to the corresponding definition."
      Which is too complicated for me.



      I hope someone can present an informal explanation, or some intuitve examples at least, that may clarify the concept.










      share|cite|improve this question









      $endgroup$




      I was reading the definition of an Algebraic Lattice: "An algebraic lattice is a complete lattice L, such that every element x of L is the supremum of the compact elements below x".

      Then I looked for the formal definition of a compact element and It apperead really messy to me ( mentioning directed subsets and ideals).

      Then I looked, always on wikipedia, for some examples to gain some intuition but all they provided is:

      -"The most basic example is obtained by considering the power set of some set, ordered by subset inclusion. Within this complete lattice, the compact elements are exactly the finite sets. This justifies the name "finite element"."
      Which is not helpful at all.



      -"The term "compact" is explained by considering the complete lattices of open sets of some topological space, also ordered by subset inclusion. Within this order, the compact elements are just the compact sets. Indeed, the condition for compactness in join-semilattices translates immediately to the corresponding definition."
      Which is too complicated for me.



      I hope someone can present an informal explanation, or some intuitve examples at least, that may clarify the concept.







      lattice-orders






      share|cite|improve this question













      share|cite|improve this question











      share|cite|improve this question




      share|cite|improve this question










      asked Jan 31 at 16:38









      Gabriele ScarlattiGabriele Scarlatti

      380212




      380212






















          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          0












          $begingroup$

          One of the definition's you're apparently referring to:




          (an element $cin P$ is compact if ) for every directed subset $D$ of $P$, if $D$ has a supremum $sup D$ and $c ≤ sup D$ then $c ≤ d$ for some element $d$ of $D$.




          This is straightforward enough: if you have a directed subset $D$ which also has a supremum, and $c$ is beneath the supremum, then it's beneath an element of $D$.



          That is, $c$ never manages to sit between an entire directed set and its supremum.



          In the following, I'm going to try to get some ideas out there to help with the intuition you were having problems with:




          Within this complete lattice, the compact elements are exactly the finite sets. This justifies the name "finite element"." Which is not helpful at all.




          "Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness", and that's also something "finite" does. That is why they're mean to describe similar types of elements: small/finite/compact.



          If you are handy with topological compactness, consider this: Let $(X,mathscr T)$, be a compact topological space. I claim that this is equivalent with $X$ being a compact element of the lattice of open subsets.



          Given any open cover $mathscr O$ of $X$, we have a subset of $mathscr T$, one which is not necessarily a directed subset of $mathscr T$, but it certainly has a supremum, namely $cup mathscr O$. It is not hard to see how to make a directed set out of it: you can just take all finite unions of elements of $mathscr O$ and you then have a directed subset $mathscr D$ with the same supremum. Moreover, $Xleq sup(mathscr D)$.



          Conversely, every directed subset of open sets whose supremeum contains $X$ is an open cover of $X$.



          Given this connection between open covers of $X$ and directed subsets of $mathscr T$ whose supremeum contains $X$, it should be clear that $X$ is topologically compact iff it is a compact element of the lattice of open sets.



          Of course, as you know, every finite subset of a topological space is compact. If you were given an open covering, you would just go through each point one by one and grab an open set containing that point, and when you were done you would have a finite collection of subsets of the open cover which covers your finite set. That's an illustration of "compact generalizes finite."






          share|cite|improve this answer











          $endgroup$













          • $begingroup$
            ""Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness"" I disagree with this to a certain extent: most obviously, subsets of compact sets need not be compact.
            $endgroup$
            – Noah Schweber
            Jan 31 at 17:07










          • $begingroup$
            @NoahSchweber It's not a perfect analogy, I agree. It is not completely monotonic. But the sentiment was good enough for Arhangelski'i to use in his courses.
            $endgroup$
            – rschwieb
            Jan 31 at 17:09












          Your Answer





          StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
          return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
          StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
          StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
          });
          });
          }, "mathjax-editing");

          StackExchange.ready(function() {
          var channelOptions = {
          tags: "".split(" "),
          id: "69"
          };
          initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

          StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
          // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
          if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
          StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
          createEditor();
          });
          }
          else {
          createEditor();
          }
          });

          function createEditor() {
          StackExchange.prepareEditor({
          heartbeatType: 'answer',
          autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
          convertImagesToLinks: true,
          noModals: true,
          showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
          reputationToPostImages: 10,
          bindNavPrevention: true,
          postfix: "",
          imageUploader: {
          brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
          contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
          allowUrls: true
          },
          noCode: true, onDemand: true,
          discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
          ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
          });


          }
          });














          draft saved

          draft discarded


















          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmath.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f3095111%2fwhat-is-a-compact-element%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown

























          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes








          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes









          0












          $begingroup$

          One of the definition's you're apparently referring to:




          (an element $cin P$ is compact if ) for every directed subset $D$ of $P$, if $D$ has a supremum $sup D$ and $c ≤ sup D$ then $c ≤ d$ for some element $d$ of $D$.




          This is straightforward enough: if you have a directed subset $D$ which also has a supremum, and $c$ is beneath the supremum, then it's beneath an element of $D$.



          That is, $c$ never manages to sit between an entire directed set and its supremum.



          In the following, I'm going to try to get some ideas out there to help with the intuition you were having problems with:




          Within this complete lattice, the compact elements are exactly the finite sets. This justifies the name "finite element"." Which is not helpful at all.




          "Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness", and that's also something "finite" does. That is why they're mean to describe similar types of elements: small/finite/compact.



          If you are handy with topological compactness, consider this: Let $(X,mathscr T)$, be a compact topological space. I claim that this is equivalent with $X$ being a compact element of the lattice of open subsets.



          Given any open cover $mathscr O$ of $X$, we have a subset of $mathscr T$, one which is not necessarily a directed subset of $mathscr T$, but it certainly has a supremum, namely $cup mathscr O$. It is not hard to see how to make a directed set out of it: you can just take all finite unions of elements of $mathscr O$ and you then have a directed subset $mathscr D$ with the same supremum. Moreover, $Xleq sup(mathscr D)$.



          Conversely, every directed subset of open sets whose supremeum contains $X$ is an open cover of $X$.



          Given this connection between open covers of $X$ and directed subsets of $mathscr T$ whose supremeum contains $X$, it should be clear that $X$ is topologically compact iff it is a compact element of the lattice of open sets.



          Of course, as you know, every finite subset of a topological space is compact. If you were given an open covering, you would just go through each point one by one and grab an open set containing that point, and when you were done you would have a finite collection of subsets of the open cover which covers your finite set. That's an illustration of "compact generalizes finite."






          share|cite|improve this answer











          $endgroup$













          • $begingroup$
            ""Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness"" I disagree with this to a certain extent: most obviously, subsets of compact sets need not be compact.
            $endgroup$
            – Noah Schweber
            Jan 31 at 17:07










          • $begingroup$
            @NoahSchweber It's not a perfect analogy, I agree. It is not completely monotonic. But the sentiment was good enough for Arhangelski'i to use in his courses.
            $endgroup$
            – rschwieb
            Jan 31 at 17:09
















          0












          $begingroup$

          One of the definition's you're apparently referring to:




          (an element $cin P$ is compact if ) for every directed subset $D$ of $P$, if $D$ has a supremum $sup D$ and $c ≤ sup D$ then $c ≤ d$ for some element $d$ of $D$.




          This is straightforward enough: if you have a directed subset $D$ which also has a supremum, and $c$ is beneath the supremum, then it's beneath an element of $D$.



          That is, $c$ never manages to sit between an entire directed set and its supremum.



          In the following, I'm going to try to get some ideas out there to help with the intuition you were having problems with:




          Within this complete lattice, the compact elements are exactly the finite sets. This justifies the name "finite element"." Which is not helpful at all.




          "Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness", and that's also something "finite" does. That is why they're mean to describe similar types of elements: small/finite/compact.



          If you are handy with topological compactness, consider this: Let $(X,mathscr T)$, be a compact topological space. I claim that this is equivalent with $X$ being a compact element of the lattice of open subsets.



          Given any open cover $mathscr O$ of $X$, we have a subset of $mathscr T$, one which is not necessarily a directed subset of $mathscr T$, but it certainly has a supremum, namely $cup mathscr O$. It is not hard to see how to make a directed set out of it: you can just take all finite unions of elements of $mathscr O$ and you then have a directed subset $mathscr D$ with the same supremum. Moreover, $Xleq sup(mathscr D)$.



          Conversely, every directed subset of open sets whose supremeum contains $X$ is an open cover of $X$.



          Given this connection between open covers of $X$ and directed subsets of $mathscr T$ whose supremeum contains $X$, it should be clear that $X$ is topologically compact iff it is a compact element of the lattice of open sets.



          Of course, as you know, every finite subset of a topological space is compact. If you were given an open covering, you would just go through each point one by one and grab an open set containing that point, and when you were done you would have a finite collection of subsets of the open cover which covers your finite set. That's an illustration of "compact generalizes finite."






          share|cite|improve this answer











          $endgroup$













          • $begingroup$
            ""Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness"" I disagree with this to a certain extent: most obviously, subsets of compact sets need not be compact.
            $endgroup$
            – Noah Schweber
            Jan 31 at 17:07










          • $begingroup$
            @NoahSchweber It's not a perfect analogy, I agree. It is not completely monotonic. But the sentiment was good enough for Arhangelski'i to use in his courses.
            $endgroup$
            – rschwieb
            Jan 31 at 17:09














          0












          0








          0





          $begingroup$

          One of the definition's you're apparently referring to:




          (an element $cin P$ is compact if ) for every directed subset $D$ of $P$, if $D$ has a supremum $sup D$ and $c ≤ sup D$ then $c ≤ d$ for some element $d$ of $D$.




          This is straightforward enough: if you have a directed subset $D$ which also has a supremum, and $c$ is beneath the supremum, then it's beneath an element of $D$.



          That is, $c$ never manages to sit between an entire directed set and its supremum.



          In the following, I'm going to try to get some ideas out there to help with the intuition you were having problems with:




          Within this complete lattice, the compact elements are exactly the finite sets. This justifies the name "finite element"." Which is not helpful at all.




          "Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness", and that's also something "finite" does. That is why they're mean to describe similar types of elements: small/finite/compact.



          If you are handy with topological compactness, consider this: Let $(X,mathscr T)$, be a compact topological space. I claim that this is equivalent with $X$ being a compact element of the lattice of open subsets.



          Given any open cover $mathscr O$ of $X$, we have a subset of $mathscr T$, one which is not necessarily a directed subset of $mathscr T$, but it certainly has a supremum, namely $cup mathscr O$. It is not hard to see how to make a directed set out of it: you can just take all finite unions of elements of $mathscr O$ and you then have a directed subset $mathscr D$ with the same supremum. Moreover, $Xleq sup(mathscr D)$.



          Conversely, every directed subset of open sets whose supremeum contains $X$ is an open cover of $X$.



          Given this connection between open covers of $X$ and directed subsets of $mathscr T$ whose supremeum contains $X$, it should be clear that $X$ is topologically compact iff it is a compact element of the lattice of open sets.



          Of course, as you know, every finite subset of a topological space is compact. If you were given an open covering, you would just go through each point one by one and grab an open set containing that point, and when you were done you would have a finite collection of subsets of the open cover which covers your finite set. That's an illustration of "compact generalizes finite."






          share|cite|improve this answer











          $endgroup$



          One of the definition's you're apparently referring to:




          (an element $cin P$ is compact if ) for every directed subset $D$ of $P$, if $D$ has a supremum $sup D$ and $c ≤ sup D$ then $c ≤ d$ for some element $d$ of $D$.




          This is straightforward enough: if you have a directed subset $D$ which also has a supremum, and $c$ is beneath the supremum, then it's beneath an element of $D$.



          That is, $c$ never manages to sit between an entire directed set and its supremum.



          In the following, I'm going to try to get some ideas out there to help with the intuition you were having problems with:




          Within this complete lattice, the compact elements are exactly the finite sets. This justifies the name "finite element"." Which is not helpful at all.




          "Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness", and that's also something "finite" does. That is why they're mean to describe similar types of elements: small/finite/compact.



          If you are handy with topological compactness, consider this: Let $(X,mathscr T)$, be a compact topological space. I claim that this is equivalent with $X$ being a compact element of the lattice of open subsets.



          Given any open cover $mathscr O$ of $X$, we have a subset of $mathscr T$, one which is not necessarily a directed subset of $mathscr T$, but it certainly has a supremum, namely $cup mathscr O$. It is not hard to see how to make a directed set out of it: you can just take all finite unions of elements of $mathscr O$ and you then have a directed subset $mathscr D$ with the same supremum. Moreover, $Xleq sup(mathscr D)$.



          Conversely, every directed subset of open sets whose supremeum contains $X$ is an open cover of $X$.



          Given this connection between open covers of $X$ and directed subsets of $mathscr T$ whose supremeum contains $X$, it should be clear that $X$ is topologically compact iff it is a compact element of the lattice of open sets.



          Of course, as you know, every finite subset of a topological space is compact. If you were given an open covering, you would just go through each point one by one and grab an open set containing that point, and when you were done you would have a finite collection of subsets of the open cover which covers your finite set. That's an illustration of "compact generalizes finite."







          share|cite|improve this answer














          share|cite|improve this answer



          share|cite|improve this answer








          edited Feb 3 at 18:02

























          answered Jan 31 at 17:05









          rschwiebrschwieb

          108k12103253




          108k12103253












          • $begingroup$
            ""Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness"" I disagree with this to a certain extent: most obviously, subsets of compact sets need not be compact.
            $endgroup$
            – Noah Schweber
            Jan 31 at 17:07










          • $begingroup$
            @NoahSchweber It's not a perfect analogy, I agree. It is not completely monotonic. But the sentiment was good enough for Arhangelski'i to use in his courses.
            $endgroup$
            – rschwieb
            Jan 31 at 17:09


















          • $begingroup$
            ""Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness"" I disagree with this to a certain extent: most obviously, subsets of compact sets need not be compact.
            $endgroup$
            – Noah Schweber
            Jan 31 at 17:07










          • $begingroup$
            @NoahSchweber It's not a perfect analogy, I agree. It is not completely monotonic. But the sentiment was good enough for Arhangelski'i to use in his courses.
            $endgroup$
            – rschwieb
            Jan 31 at 17:09
















          $begingroup$
          ""Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness"" I disagree with this to a certain extent: most obviously, subsets of compact sets need not be compact.
          $endgroup$
          – Noah Schweber
          Jan 31 at 17:07




          $begingroup$
          ""Compactness" as a rule is meant to generalize "smallness"" I disagree with this to a certain extent: most obviously, subsets of compact sets need not be compact.
          $endgroup$
          – Noah Schweber
          Jan 31 at 17:07












          $begingroup$
          @NoahSchweber It's not a perfect analogy, I agree. It is not completely monotonic. But the sentiment was good enough for Arhangelski'i to use in his courses.
          $endgroup$
          – rschwieb
          Jan 31 at 17:09




          $begingroup$
          @NoahSchweber It's not a perfect analogy, I agree. It is not completely monotonic. But the sentiment was good enough for Arhangelski'i to use in his courses.
          $endgroup$
          – rschwieb
          Jan 31 at 17:09


















          draft saved

          draft discarded




















































          Thanks for contributing an answer to Mathematics Stack Exchange!


          • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

          But avoid



          • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

          • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


          Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


          To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




          draft saved


          draft discarded














          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmath.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f3095111%2fwhat-is-a-compact-element%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown





















































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown

































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown







          Popular posts from this blog

          'app-layout' is not a known element: how to share Component with different Modules

          android studio warns about leanback feature tag usage required on manifest while using Unity exported app?

          WPF add header to Image with URL pettitions [duplicate]