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group – meet
group
A set together with a binary operation defined on its elements, satisfying - The group operation is associative,
- There is an identity element, i.e., an element e of the group so that for any other element a of the group we have ea = ae = a, and
- for every element a of the group there is an element a´, called the inverse of a, so that aa´ = a´a = e.
If the group operation is commutative, the group is called Abelian. If the condition that every element have an inverse is dropped, the set is called a monoid. If in addition the requirement that an identity element exist is dropped, the set is called a semigroup. Finally, if the condition that the group operation be associative is dropped, the set is called a groupoid.
 Cf. field, module, ring
group automorphism
A group isomorphism from a group to itself. That is, a bijective function from a group to itself that preserves the group operation, i.e. f(ab) = f(a)f(b) for all a, b.
Cf. group homomorphism, group isomorphism.
group homomorphism
A function from one group to another that preserves the group operation, i.e., f(ab) = f(a)f(b) for all a, b.
Cf. group automorphism, group isomorphism.
group isomorphism
A group homomorphism that is both “one-to-one” and “onto.” That is, a bijective function from one group to another that preserves the group operation, i.e. f(ab) = f(a)f(b) for all a, b.
Cf. group homomorphism, group automorphism.
groupoid
See group.
homomorphism
A function f from one algebra to another is called a homomorphism if it preserves operations on elements, that is, if for any a, b in the domain, f(ab) = f(a)f(b).
Cf. group homomorphism, ring homomorphism.
idempotent
An element of an algebra is called idempotent if it is equal to its own square.
If for a binary operation “ · ” on an algebra A we have that a · a = a for every a in A, then “ · ” is called an idempotent operation.
identity element
Given an algebra X with a binary operation “ • ”, an identity element of X is an element e such that for all x in X, x • e = e • x = x. If “ • ” is addition, the identity element is usually called zero and denoted by 0; if the operation is multiplication, the identity element is usually called unity and denoted by 1.
It is possible for an algebra to have distinct left and right identities, that is, distinct e and e’ such that for all x, e • x = x and x • e’ = x. If an element is both a left and right identity, then it is the unique identity element in the algebra for that operation.
identity function
A function that maps each domain element to itself. Also called the identity map.
identity map
See identity function.
image
Given a function f with domain X, the image under f of a subset A of X, denoted f(A), is the subset of the range consisting of those elements to which elements of A are mapped by f.
incidence matrix
A way to represent a graph as a matrix. Given a graph G with vertices {v1, v2, ..., vn} and edges {e1, e2, ..., em}, the incidence matrix of G is an n by m matrix, whose i, j entry is the number of times ej is incident on vi (zero if not incident, one if incident and not a loop, two if incident and a loop).
Cf. adjacency matrix.
isomorphism
A morphism that is both injective and surjective, that is, both “one-to-one” and “onto.” An isomorphism from a structure to itself is called an automorphism.
join
A binary operation whose value on two elements a and b of a lattice is the least upper bound of a and b, denoted a  b.
Cf. meet.
join-morphism
A function f on a lattice L is called a join-morphism if for every a and b in L we have f(a b) = f(a) f(b). If f has an inverse that is also a join-morphism, then f is called a join-isomorphism. A join-isomorphism from a lattice to itself is called a join-automorphism.
Cf. join, meet-morphism.
kernel
Given algebras X and Y and a morphism f from X to Y, the kernel of f is the subset of X all of whose elements are mapped by f to the identity element of Y. If f is a group homomorphism, then the kernel of f is a normal subgroup of X; the kernel of a ring homomorphism is an ideal.
line
Naively, “line” is a primitive concept, generally connoting a straight path through space. In mathematics this notion is abstracted formally in different ways depending on the type of mathematics under consideration.
Geometry: Euclid defined the term “line” as a point extended indefinitely in space. However, in modern Euclidean geometry, “line” is a primitive term, left purposely undefined, whose meaning is informed purely by the axioms in which the term appears.
Analytic geometry: Any set of ordered pairs (x, y) of all the points in the Cartesian plane satisfying an equation of the form ax + by + c = 0, where a, b, and c are real numbers. (There are three common and useful forms of this equation; see the entry for linear function.) This definition of the line may be generalized to a Euclidean space of n dimensions to include any set of ordered n-tuples (x1, x2, ..., xn) satisfying a1x1 + a2x2 + ... + anxn + c = 0. In polar coordinates a line is any set of all the ordered pairs (r, q) satisfying an equation of the form r = p sec (q - a), where p is the perpendicular distance from the pole to the line, and a is the angle of inclination of the line to the polar axis.
linear function
A polynomial function of degree one. The graph is a straight line. There are three special forms of the linear equation:
In the first form, called the slope-interecept form, m is the slope of the line and b is the y-intercept. In the second form, called the point-slope form, m is the slope of the line and (x 0, y 0) is any point on the line. In the third form a is the x-intercept and b is the y-intercept.
linear space
See vector space.
matrix
A rectangular array of, usually, real or complex numbers, organized into rows and columns. When specifying the size of a matrix, the number of rows is stated first. For example, here is a 2 by 4 real matrix:
The numbers in a matrix are called entries, and are specified by the row and then column in which they appear. In the example above, for instance, A1,2 is the entry in the first row and second column, i.e. 4.98.
Two matrices of the same size (with the same number of rows and columns) can be added componentwise, that is (A + B)i, j = Ai, j + Bi, j. Matrix multiplication is a little more complicated. A matrix M can be multiplied on the right by another matrix T only if T has the same number of rows as M has columns, and the result will have as many rows as M and as many columns as T. The entry of M T appearing in row i and column j is the sum of the pairwise products of the entries in row i of M and column j of T. In other words, if M is an n by m matrix, T must be an m by l matrix, and
Notice that this operation is not, in general, commutative.
A matrix that has the same number of rows and columns is called a square matrix, and these are particularly interesting as they can be added and multiplied, and the results will have the same dimensions.
The most standard use of matrices is to represent linear operators, but they have a wide variety of other uses, and are interesting to study in their own right. Matrices can have a large number of different types of entries, including various kinds of numbers, elements of abstract fields and other algebraic structures, functions, and so forth.
meet
A binary operation whose value on two elements a and b of a lattice is the greatest lower bound of a and b, denoted a  b.
Cf. join.
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