Definition:Supremum of Mapping/Real-Valued Function
This page is about Supremum in the context of Real-Valued Function. For other uses, see Supremum.
Definition
Let $f: S \to \R$ be a real-valued function.
Let $f$ be bounded above on $S$.
Definition 1
The supremum of $f$ on $S$ is defined by:
- $\ds \sup_{x \mathop \in S} \map f x := \sup f \sqbrk S$
where
Definition 2
The supremum of $f$ on $S$ is defined as $\ds \sup_{x \mathop \in S} \map f x := K \in \R$ such that:
- $(1): \quad \forall x \in S: \map f x \le K$
- $(2): \quad \exists x \in S: \forall \epsilon \in \R_{>0}: \map f x > K - \epsilon$
Also defined as
Some sources refer to the supremum as being the upper bound.
Using this convention, any element greater than this is not considered to be an upper bound.
Also known as
Particularly in the field of analysis, the supremum of a set $T$ is often referred to as the least upper bound of $T$ and denoted $\map {\mathrm {lub} } T$ or $\map {\mathrm {l.u.b.} } T$.
Some sources refer to the supremum of a set as the supremum on a set.
Some sources refer to the supremum of a set as the join of the set and use the notation $\bigvee T$ or $\ds \bigvee_{y \mathop \in T} y$.
Some sources introduce the notation $\ds \sup_{y \mathop \in T} y$, which may improve clarity in some circumstances.
Some older sources, applying the concept to a (strictly) increasing real sequence, refer to a supremum as an upper limit.
Also see
- Continuum Property, which guarantees that this supremum always exists.
- Results about suprema can be found here.
Linguistic Note
The plural of supremum is suprema, although the (incorrect) form supremums can occasionally be found if you look hard enough.
Sources
- 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): bound: 1. (of a function)
- 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): bound: 1. (of a function)