Equivalence class
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Contents
Definition
Given an Equivalence relation [ilmath]\sim[/ilmath] the equivalence class of [ilmath]a[/ilmath] is denoted as follows:
[math][a]=\{b|a\sim b\}[/math]
Notations
An equivalence class may be denoted by [ilmath][a][/ilmath] where [ilmath]a[/ilmath] is the representative of it. There is an alternative representation:
- [ilmath]\hat{a} [/ilmath], where again [ilmath]a[/ilmath] is the representative of the class.[1]
I quite like the hat notation, however I recommend one avoids using it when there are multiple Equivalence relations at play.
If there are multiple ones, then we can write for example [ilmath][a]_{\sim_1} [/ilmath] for a class in [ilmath]\sim_1[/ilmath] and [ilmath][f]_{\sim_2} [/ilmath] for [ilmath]\sim_2[/ilmath]
Equivalence relations partition sets
An equivalence relation is a partition
Equivalence classes are either the same or disjoint
This is the motivation for how cosets partition groups.
References
- ↑ Functional Analysis - George Bachman and Lawrence Narici
TODO: Add proofs and whatnot
