Least-upper-bound property

Main article: Least-upper-bound property

The least-upper-bound property is an example of the aforementioned completeness

properties which is typical for the set of real numbers. This property is sometimes called
Dedekind completeness.

If an ordered set S has the property that every nonempty subset of S having an upper
bound also has a least upper bound, then S is said to have the least-upper-bound
property. As noted above, the set ℝ of all real numbers has the least-upper-bound
property. Similarly, the set ℤ of integers has the least-upper-bound property; if S is a
nonempty subset of ℤ and there is some number n such that every element s of S is less
than or equal to n, then there is a least upper bound u for S, an integer that is an upper
bound for S and is less than or equal to every other upper bound for S. A well-ordered
set also has the least-upper-bound property, and the empty subset has also a least upper
bound: the minimum of the whole set.

An example of a set that lacks the least-upper-bound property is ℚ, the set of rational
numbers. Let S be the set of all rational numbers q such that q2 < 2. Then S has an upper
bound (1000, for example, or 6) but no least upper bound in ℚ: If we suppose p ∈ ℚ is
the least upper bound, a contradiction is immediately deduced because between any two
reals x and y (including √2 and p) there exists some rational p′, which itself would have
to be the least upper bound (if p > √2) or a member of S greater than p (if p < √2).
Another example is the hyperreals; there is no least upper bound of the set of positive
infinitesimals.

There is a corresponding 'greatest-lower-bound property'; an ordered set possesses the

greatest-lower-bound property if and only if it also possesses the least-upper-bound
property; the least-upper-bound of the set of lower bounds of a set is the greatest-lower-
bound, and the greatest-lower-bound of the set of upper bounds of a set is the least-
upper-bound of the set.

If in a partially ordered set P every bounded subset has a supremum, this applies also,
for any set X, in the function space containing all functions from X to P, where f ≤ g if
and only if f(x) ≤ g(x) for all x in X. For example, it applies for real functions, and, since
these can be considered special cases of functions, for real n-tuples and sequences of
real numbers.

The least-upper-bound property is an indicator of the suprema.

Infima and suprema of real numbers

In analysis, infima and suprema of subsets S of the real numbers are particularly
important. For instance, the negative real numbers do not have a greatest element, and
their supremum is 0 (which is not a negative real number).[1] The completeness of the
real numbers implies (and is equivalent to) that any bounded nonempty subset S of the
real numbers has an infimum and a supremum. If S is not bounded below, one often
formally writes inf(S) = −∞. If S is empty, one writes inf(S) = +∞.
Properties

The following formulas depend on a notation that conveniently generalizes arithmetic

operations on sets: Let the sets A, B ⊆ ℝ, and scalar λ ∈ ℝ. Define

 λ·A = { λ·a : a ∈ A }; the scalar product of a set is just the scalar multiplied by every
element in the set.
 A + B = { a + b : a ∈ A, b ∈ B }; the arithmetic sum of two sets is the sum of all possible
pairs of numbers, one from each set.
 A·B = { a·b : a ∈ A, b ∈ B }; the arithmetic product of two sets is all products of pairs of
elements, one from each set.

In those cases where the infima and suprema of the sets A and B exist, the following
identities hold:

 p = inf A if and only if for every ε > 0 there is an x ∈ A with x < p + ε, and x ≥ p for every
x ∈ A.
 p = sup A if and only if for every ε > 0 there is an x ∈ A with x > p − ε, and x ≤ p for every
x ∈ A.
 If A ⊆ B then inf A ≥ inf B and sup A ≤ sup B.

 If λ ≥ 0, then inf ( λ·A ) = λ·( inf A ) and sup ( λ·A ) = λ·( sup A ).
 If λ ≤ 0, then inf ( λ·A ) = λ·( sup A ) and sup ( λ·A ) = λ·( inf A ).
 inf ( A + B ) = ( inf A ) + ( inf B ), and sup ( A + B ) = ( sup A ) + ( sup B ).
 If A, B are nonempty sets of positive real numbers then inf ( A·B ) = ( inf A )·( inf B );
similarly for suprema.[2]

Duality

If one denotes by Pop the partially-ordered set P with the opposite order relation, i.e.

 x ≤ y in Pop if and only if x ≥ y in P,

then infimum of a subset S in P equals the supremum of S in Pop and vice versa.

For subsets of the real numbers, another kind of duality holds: inf S = −sup(−S), where
−S = { −s | s ∈ S }.

Examples

Infima

 The infimum of the set of numbers {2, 3, 4} is 2. The number 1 is a lower bound, but
not the greatest lower bound, and hence not the infimum.
 More generally, if a set has a smallest element, then the smallest element is the
infimum for the set. In this case, it is also called the minimum of the set.
 If xn is a decreasing sequence with limit x, then inf xn = x.

Suprema
  The supremum of the set of numbers {1, 2, 3} is 3. The number 4 is an upper bound,
but it is not the least upper bound, and hence is not the supremum.

In the last example, the supremum of a set of rationals is irrational, which means that
the rationals are incomplete.

One basic property of the supremum is

for any functionals f and g.

The supremum of a subset S of (ℕ,|) where | denotes "divides", is the lowest common
multiple of the elements of S.

The supremum of a subset S of (P,⊆), where P is the power set of some set, is the
supremum with respect to ⊆ (subset) of a subset S of P is the union of the elements of S.