Homogeneous relationIn mathematics, a homogeneous relation (also called endorelation) on a set X is a binary relation between X and itself, i.e. it is a subset of the Cartesian product X × X. This is commonly phrased as "a relation on X" or "a (binary) relation over X". An example of a homogeneous relation is the relation of kinship, where the relation is between people. Common types of endorelations include orders, graphs, and equivalences. Specialized studies of order theory and graph theory have developed understanding of endorelations.
Vertex (graph theory)In discrete mathematics, and more specifically in graph theory, a vertex (plural vertices) or node is the fundamental unit of which graphs are formed: an undirected graph consists of a set of vertices and a set of edges (unordered pairs of vertices), while a directed graph consists of a set of vertices and a set of arcs (ordered pairs of vertices). In a diagram of a graph, a vertex is usually represented by a circle with a label, and an edge is represented by a line or arrow extending from one vertex to another.
Family of setsIn set theory and related branches of mathematics, a collection of subsets of a given set is called a family of subsets of , or a family of sets over More generally, a collection of any sets whatsoever is called a family of sets, set family, or a set system. 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 .
Mathematical objectA mathematical object is an abstract concept arising in mathematics. In the usual language of mathematics, an object is anything that has been (or could be) formally defined, and with which one may do deductive reasoning and mathematical proofs. Typically, a mathematical object can be a value that can be assigned to a variable, and therefore can be involved in formulas. Commonly encountered mathematical objects include numbers, sets, functions, expressions, geometric objects, transformations of other mathematical objects, and spaces.
Disjoint-set data structureIn computer science, a disjoint-set data structure, also called a union–find data structure or merge–find set, is a data structure that stores a collection of disjoint (non-overlapping) sets. Equivalently, it stores a partition of a set into disjoint subsets. It provides operations for adding new sets, merging sets (replacing them by their union), and finding a representative member of a set. The last operation makes it possible to find out efficiently if any two elements are in the same or different sets.
Geometric latticeIn the mathematics of matroids and lattices, a geometric lattice is a finite atomistic semimodular lattice, and a matroid lattice is an atomistic semimodular lattice without the assumption of finiteness. Geometric lattices and matroid lattices, respectively, form the lattices of flats of finite, or finite and infinite, matroids, and every geometric or matroid lattice comes from a matroid in this way. A lattice is a poset in which any two elements and have both a least upper bound, called the join or supremum, denoted by , and a greatest lower bound, called the meet or infimum, denoted by .
Bell numberIn combinatorial mathematics, the Bell numbers count the possible partitions of a set. These numbers have been studied by mathematicians since the 19th century, and their roots go back to medieval Japan. In an example of Stigler's law of eponymy, they are named after Eric Temple Bell, who wrote about them in the 1930s. The Bell numbers are denoted , where is an integer greater than or equal to zero. Starting with , the first few Bell numbers are 1, 1, 2, 5, 15, 52, 203, 877, 4140, ... .
Catalan numberIn combinatorial mathematics, the Catalan numbers are a sequence of natural numbers that occur in various counting problems, often involving recursively defined objects. They are named after the French-Belgian mathematician Eugène Charles Catalan. The nth Catalan number can be expressed directly in terms of the central binomial coefficients by The first Catalan numbers for n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ... are 1, 1, 2, 5, 14, 42, 132, 429, 1430, 4862, 16796, 58786, ... . An alternative expression for Cn is for which is equivalent to the expression given above because .
Wigner semicircle distributionThe Wigner semicircle distribution, named after the physicist Eugene Wigner, is the probability distribution on [−R, R] whose probability density function f is a scaled semicircle (i.e., a semi-ellipse) centered at (0, 0): for −R ≤ x ≤ R, and f(x) = 0 if |x| > R. The parameter R is commonly referred to as the "radius" parameter of the distribution. The Wigner distribution also coincides with a scaled beta distribution. That is, if Y is a beta-distributed random variable with parameters α = β = 3/2, then the random variable X = 2RY – R exhibits a Wigner semicircle distribution with radius R.
Disjoint setsIn mathematics, two sets are said to be disjoint sets if they have no element in common. Equivalently, two disjoint sets are sets whose intersection is the empty set. For example, {1, 2, 3} and {4, 5, 6} are disjoint sets, while {1, 2, 3} and {3, 4, 5} are not disjoint. A collection of two or more sets is called disjoint if any two distinct sets of the collection are disjoint. This definition of disjoint sets can be extended to families of sets and to indexed families of sets.
Intersection (set theory)In set theory, the intersection of two sets and denoted by is the set containing all elements of that also belong to or equivalently, all elements of that also belong to Intersection is written using the symbol "" between the terms; that is, in infix notation. For example: The intersection of more than two sets (generalized intersection) can be written as: which is similar to capital-sigma notation. For an explanation of the symbols used in this article, refer to the table of mathematical symbols.
MatroidIn combinatorics, a branch of mathematics, a matroid ˈmeɪtrɔɪd is a structure that abstracts and generalizes the notion of linear independence in vector spaces. There are many equivalent ways to define a matroid axiomatically, the most significant being in terms of: independent sets; bases or circuits; rank functions; closure operators; and closed sets or flats. In the language of partially ordered sets, a finite simple matroid is equivalent to a geometric lattice.
Disjoint unionIn mathematics, a disjoint union (or discriminated union) of a family of sets is a set often denoted by with an injection of each into such that the of these injections form a partition of (that is, each element of belongs to exactly one of these images). A disjoint union of a family of pairwise disjoint sets is their union. In , the disjoint union is the coproduct of the , and thus defined up to a bijection. In this context, the notation is often used. The disjoint union of two sets and is written with infix notation as .