Questions tagged [set-partition]

This tag is for questions relating to "partition of a set" or, "set-partition", which is a grouping of the set's elements into non-empty subsets, in such a way that every element is included in exactly one subset.

Partition of a Set or, Set Partition is division of a set of objects into a family of subsets that are mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive; that is, no element of the original set is present in more than one of the subsets, and all the subsets together contain all the members of the original set.

Definition:

A partition of $~S~$ is a set of subsets $~\mathbb{S}~$ of $~S~$ such that:

$(1):~$ $~\mathbb{S}~$ is pairwise disjoint: $~~∀~S_1,~S_2~∈~\mathbb{S}~:~S_1∩S_2=\phi~$ when $~S_1≠S_2~$

$(2):~$ The union of $~\mathbb{S}~$ forms the whole set $~S~:~~ \cup~\mathbb{S}~=S~$

$(3):~$ None of the elements of $~\mathbb{S}~$ is empty$~: ~∀~T~∈~\mathbb{S}~:~~T≠\phi~$.

  • The number of partitions of the set $~\{k\}_{k=1}^n~$ is called a Bell number.

  • Every equivalence relation on a set defines a partition of this set, and every partition defines an equivalence relation.

  • A set equipped with an equivalence relation or a partition is sometimes called a setoid, typically in type theory and proof theory.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_a_set

https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Definition:Set_Partition

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Is this determinant identity known?

Let $A$ be an $n \times n$ matrix that is 'almost upper triangular' in the following sense: entries on and above the main diagonal can be whatever they want, entries on the diagonal just below the main diagonal all equal -1 and entries on even lower…
Vincent
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Partitioning an infinite set

Can you partition an infinite set, into an infinite number of infinite sets?
utdiscant
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Understanding equivalence class, equivalence relation, partition

I'm having difficulty grasping a couple of set theory concepts, specifically concepts dealing with relations. Here are the ones I'm having trouble with and their definitions. 1) The collection of equivalence classes w.r.t. $R$ Def: Let $R$ be an…
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An Inequality Involving Bell Numbers: $B_n^2 \leq B_{n-1}B_{n+1}$

The following inequality came up while trying to resolve a conjecture about a certain class of partitions (the context is not particularly enlightening): $$ B_n^2 \leq B_{n-1}B_{n+1} $$ for $n \geq 1$, where $B_n$ denotes the $n$th Bell number…
Austin Mohr
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A partition problem

I want to enumerate the partitions of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ into disjoint sets $A$ and $B$ such that no subset of $B$ has a sum that is a member of $A$. For example, when $n=3$ there are $7$ such partitions:…
Auslander
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Split a set of numbers into 2 sets, where the sum of each set is as close to one another as possible

Given a finite set $P = \{ p_1, \dots, p_n \} $ of integers, I'd like to split it into two subsets $A = \{ a_1, \dots, a_m \} \subseteq P$ and $B = \{ b_1, \dots, b_r \} \subseteq P$, where $m + r = n$, and, for each subset, the sum of the numbers…
Alex Heyd
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Partition of N into infinite number of infinite disjoint sets?

Is it possible to have a countable infinite number of countable infinite sets such that no two sets share an element and their union is the positive integers?
jo_vittulainen
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Integer parts of multiples of irrationals

Let $\alpha>0$ and define $$S(\alpha)=\big\{\lfloor n \alpha \rfloor: n\in\Bbb Z^+ \big\}.$$ Here $\lfloor x\rfloor$ is the integer part of $x$ and $\mathbb Z^+$ the set of positive integers. Question. Is it possible to find…
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Can every infinite set be divided into pairwise disjoint subsets of size $n\in\mathbb{N}$?

Let $S$ be an infinite set and $n$ be a natural number. Does there exist partition of $S$ in which each subset has size $n$? This is pretty easy to do for countable sets. Is it true for uncountable sets? If (1) is true, can it be proved without…
Alexander Gruber
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Average Number of Blocks in a Partition Containing a Large Block

Notation Let $[n]$ denote the set of integers from 1 up to $n$, inclusive. Let $A_n$ denote the average number of blocks over all partitions of $[n]$. Let $B_n$ denote the number of partitions of $[n]$ (the $n$th Bell number). Question For any…
Austin Mohr
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Does there exist a continuous partition of the sphere into sets of cardinality 4?

Define $X^{\{n\}}:=\{A\subseteq X:|A|=n\}$, the set of subsets of cardinality $n$. If $X$ is a topological space, $X^{\{n\}}$ can be given a topology by considering it to be a quotient of $X^n$ minus the extended diagonal. Define a continuous…
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What is the best way to partition the $4$-subsets of $\{1,2,3,\dots,n\}$?

Also asked on MO: What is the best way to partition the $4$-subsets of $\{1,2,3,\dots,n\}$?. Consider the set $X = \{1,2,3,\dots,n\}$. Define the collection of all $4$-subsets of $X$ by $$\mathcal A=\{Y\subset X: Y\text{ contains exactly $4$…
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How many ways to merge N companies into one big company: Bell or Catalan?

There's a famous interview question variously credited to Microsoft, Google and Yahoo: Suppose you have given N companies, and we want to eventually merge them into one big company. How many ways are there to merge them? Assuming you can merge…
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2 answers

Topology on the set of partitions

Let $X$ be the set of all partitions of $[0,1]$ such that each element of the partition is Lebesgue-measurable. Let $Y$ be the set of all partitions of $[0,1]$ such that each element of the partition is a Borel set. Is there a standard topology…
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Is there some sort of correspondence between groups and partitions of a set?

Every group action on a set $S$ partitions the set into orbits. Conversely, for every partition of $S$ is there a group action such that the set of orbits of the group action equals the partition? My attempt. Let $P = \{S_1,\dots, S_k\}$ be a…
Abstract Space Crack
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