Complete preorders (and other binary relations)

In summary: This is all public information, so if anyone is interested in seeing it, I can post the spreadsheet.In summary, the complete preorder is a relation that is both total and transitive. It has 17 different combinations of properties, and can be found in the OEIS.
  • #1
CRGreathouse
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Is there a commonly-used name for a complete preorder (a transitive and total relation, Sloan's A000670 and A011782 for labeled and unlabeled, respectively) within set theory? (Not a total order, mind you -- it need not be antisymmetric.) I've heard the term "weak order", but that's from the same field that uses "linear order" for total orders, so I wanted some clarification if anyone knows of something else.

Also, does anyone know about counting the number of elements in complete relations? Götz Pfeiffer has an excellent paper Counting Transitive Relations about counting transitive relations (mentioning 26 classes of relations along the way), but he doesn't touch on the slightly-more-manegable complete relations at all.
 
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  • #2
I've heard the term "total preorder".

What's a "complete relation"? I've not heard the term before. Is it one where at least one of xRy and yRx is true?
 
  • #3
Hurkyl said:
I've heard the term "total preorder".

What's a "complete relation"? I've not heard the term before. Is it one where at least one of xRy and yRx is true?

Ah, yes, that's the term. I knew I had heard something like that, thanks.

Yes, xRy V yRx for every x, y in the set. What do you call that, totality?


In any case, on the second part of my question, I've been putting together a spreadsheet with the values (actually their logarithms, since otherwise they'd be prohibitively large) of combinations of properties for labeled binary relations. With C = complete/total, R = reflexive, S = symmetric, T = transitive, and A = antisymmetric, I have all 17 interesting combinations figured out now:
--, R, C, S, RS, T, TA, ST, RT, CT, CTA, A, RA, CA, STA, RTA, RST

I have a OEIS number for each one (with modification if needed), and values at least as far as Sloan's sequences go (and further in some cases).
 
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1. What is a complete preorder?

A complete preorder is a type of binary relation that is reflexive, transitive, and complete. This means that for any two elements in the relation, one is either greater than or equal to the other in terms of some criteria, and there are no elements that are incomparable.

2. What is the difference between a complete preorder and a partial order?

A complete preorder differs from a partial order in that it allows for elements to be equal, while a partial order does not. This means that in a complete preorder, elements can be comparable and have the same order, while in a partial order, elements must be strictly different in order to be comparable.

3. How is a complete preorder represented?

A complete preorder can be represented in a few different ways. One common way is to use a Hasse diagram, which is a graph that shows the elements in the relation and their order. Another way is to use a binary relation matrix, where the elements are represented in rows and columns and their relationships are shown through 1s and 0s.

4. What are some examples of complete preorders?

An example of a complete preorder is the relation "is a subset of" on the set of all subsets of a given set. Another example is the relation "is a divisor of" on the set of positive integers.

5. How are complete preorders used in science?

In science, complete preorders are used to model and analyze relationships between elements or variables. They are particularly useful in areas such as decision-making, economics, and computer science. For example, complete preorders can be used to rank options in decision-making processes or to analyze the efficiency of algorithms in computer science.

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