7.3.8 Intersections of Families of Relations

Let $A$ and $B$ be sets and let $\webleft\{ R_{i}\webright\} _{i\in I}$ be a family of relations from $A$ to $B$.

The intersection of the family $\webleft\{ R_{i}\webright\} _{i\in I}$ is the relation $\smash {\bigcup _{i\in I}R_{i}}$ defined as follows:

  • Viewing relations from $A$ to $B$ as subsets of $A\times B$, we define1
    \[ \bigcup _{i\in I}R_{i}\mathrel {\smash {\overset {\mathclap {\scriptscriptstyle \text{def}}}=}}\webleft\{ \webleft (a,b\webright )\in \webleft (A\times B\webright )^{\times I}\ \middle |\ \begin{aligned} & \text{for each $i\in I$,}\\ & \text{we have $a\sim _{R_{i}}b$}\end{aligned} \webright\} . \]

  • Viewing relations from $A$ to $B$ as functions $A\to \mathcal{P}\webleft (B\webright )$, we define

    \[ \webleft[\bigcap _{i\in I}R_{i}\webright]\webleft (a\webright )\mathrel {\smash {\overset {\mathclap {\scriptscriptstyle \text{def}}}=}}\bigcap _{i\in I}R_{i}\webleft (a\webright ) \]

    for each $a\in A$.


1This is the same as the intersection of $\webleft\{ R_{i}\webright\} _{i\in I}$ as a collection of subsets of $A\times B$.

Let $A$ and $B$ be sets and let $\webleft\{ R_{i}\webright\} _{i\in I}$ be a family of relations from $A$ to $B$.

  1. Interaction With Inverses. We have
    \[ \webleft (\bigcap _{i\in I}R_{i}\webright )^{\dagger } = \bigcap _{i\in I}R^{\dagger }_{i}. \]

Item 1: Interaction With Inverses
Clear.


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