
In
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, an ordered vector space or partially ordered vector space is a
vector space
In mathematics and physics, a vector space (also called a linear space) is a set (mathematics), set whose elements, often called vector (mathematics and physics), ''vectors'', can be added together and multiplied ("scaled") by numbers called sc ...
equipped with a
partial order
In mathematics, especially order theory, a partial order on a set is an arrangement such that, for certain pairs of elements, one precedes the other. The word ''partial'' is used to indicate that not every pair of elements needs to be comparable ...
that is compatible with the vector space operations.
Definition
Given a vector space
over the
real number
In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a continuous one- dimensional quantity such as a duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that pairs of values can have arbitrarily small differences. Every re ...
s
and a
preorder
In mathematics, especially in order theory, a preorder or quasiorder is a binary relation that is reflexive relation, reflexive and Transitive relation, transitive. The name is meant to suggest that preorders are ''almost'' partial orders, ...
on the
set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
the pair
is called a preordered vector space and we say that the preorder
is compatible with the vector space structure of
and call
a vector preorder on
if for all
and
with
the following two axioms are satisfied
#
implies
#
implies
If
is a
partial order
In mathematics, especially order theory, a partial order on a set is an arrangement such that, for certain pairs of elements, one precedes the other. The word ''partial'' is used to indicate that not every pair of elements needs to be comparable ...
compatible with the vector space structure of
then
is called an ordered vector space and
is called a vector partial order on
The two axioms imply that
translation
Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...
s and
positive homotheties are
automorphism
In mathematics, an automorphism is an isomorphism from a mathematical object to itself. It is, in some sense, a symmetry of the object, and a way of mapping the object to itself while preserving all of its structure. The set of all automorphism ...
s of the order structure and the mapping
is an
isomorphism
In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping or morphism between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between the ...
to the
dual order structure. Ordered vector spaces are
ordered group
In abstract algebra, a partially ordered group is a group (''G'', +) equipped with a partial order "≤" that is ''translation-invariant''; in other words, "≤" has the property that, for all ''a'', ''b'', and ''g'' in ''G'', if ''a'' ≤ ''b'' ...
s under their addition operation.
Note that
if and only if
Positive cones and their equivalence to orderings
A
subset
In mathematics, a Set (mathematics), set ''A'' is a subset of a set ''B'' if all Element (mathematics), elements of ''A'' are also elements of ''B''; ''B'' is then a superset of ''A''. It is possible for ''A'' and ''B'' to be equal; if they a ...
of a vector space
is called a cone if for all real
. A cone is called pointed if it contains the origin. A cone
is convex if and only if
The
intersection
In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their ...
of any
non-empty
In mathematics, the empty set or void set is the unique set having no elements; its size or cardinality (count of elements in a set) is zero. Some axiomatic set theories ensure that the empty set exists by including an axiom of empty set, whil ...
family of cones (resp. convex cones) is again a cone (resp. convex cone);
the same is true of the
union of an increasing (under
set inclusion) family of cones (resp. convex cones). A cone
in a vector space
is said to be generating if
Given a preordered vector space
the subset
of all elements
in
satisfying
is a pointed
convex cone
In linear algebra, a cone—sometimes called a linear cone to distinguish it from other sorts of cones—is a subset of a real vector space that is closed under positive scalar multiplication; that is, C is a cone if x\in C implies sx\in C for e ...
(that is, a convex cone containing
) called the positive cone of
and denoted by
The elements of the positive cone are called positive.
If
and
are elements of a preordered vector space
then
if and only if
The positive cone is generating if and only if
is a
directed set
In mathematics, a directed set (or a directed preorder or a filtered set) is a preordered set in which every finite subset has an upper bound. In other words, it is a non-empty preordered set A such that for any a and b in A there exists c in A wit ...
under
Given any pointed convex cone
one may define a preorder
on
that is compatible with the vector space structure of
by declaring for all
that
if and only if
the positive cone of this resulting preordered vector space is
There is thus a one-to-one correspondence between pointed convex cones and vector preorders on
If
is preordered then we may form an
equivalence relation
In mathematics, an equivalence relation is a binary relation that is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive. The equipollence relation between line segments in geometry is a common example of an equivalence relation. A simpler example is equ ...
on
by defining
is equivalent to
if and only if
and
if
is the
equivalence class
In mathematics, when the elements of some set S have a notion of equivalence (formalized as an equivalence relation), then one may naturally split the set S into equivalence classes. These equivalence classes are constructed so that elements ...
containing the origin then
is a vector subspace of
and
is an ordered vector space under the relation:
if and only there exist
and
such that
A subset of
of a vector space
is called a
proper cone if it is a convex cone satisfying
Explicitly,
is a proper cone if (1)
(2)
for all
and (3)
The intersection of any non-empty family of proper cones is again a proper cone. Each proper cone
in a real vector space induces an order on the vector space by defining
if and only if
and furthermore, the positive cone of this ordered vector space will be
Therefore, there exists a one-to-one correspondence between the proper convex cones of
and the vector partial orders on
By a total vector ordering on
we mean a
total order
In mathematics, a total order or linear order is a partial order in which any two elements are comparable. That is, a total order is a binary relation \leq on some set X, which satisfies the following for all a, b and c in X:
# a \leq a ( re ...
on
that is compatible with the vector space structure of
The family of total vector orderings on a vector space
is in one-to-one correspondence with the family of all proper cones that are maximal under set inclusion.
A total vector ordering ''cannot'' be
Archimedean if its
dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coo ...
, when considered as a vector space over the reals, is greater than 1.
If
and
are two orderings of a vector space with positive cones
and
respectively, then we say that
is finer than
if
Intervals and the order bound dual
An order interval in a preordered vector space is a set of the form
From axioms 1 and 2 above it follows that
and
implies
belongs to
thus these order intervals are convex.
A subset is said to be order bounded if it is contained in some order interval.
In a preordered real vector space, if for
then the interval of the form