Filter base

In mathematics, a filter on a set is a family of subsets which is closed under supersets and finite intersections. The concept originates in topology, where the neighborhoods of a point form a filter on the space. Filters were introduced by Henri Cartan in 1937 and, as described in the article dedicated to filters in topology, they were subsequently used by Nicolas Bourbaki in their book Topologie Générale as an alternative to the related notion of a net developed in 1922 by E. H. Moore and Herman L. Smith. They have also found applications in model theory and set theory.

Filters on a set were later generalized to order filters. Specifically, a filter on a set is an order filter on the power set of ordered by inclusion.

The notion dual to a filter is an ideal. Ultrafilters are a particularly important subclass of filters.

Definition

Given a set , a filter on is a set of subsets of such that:

• is upwards-closed: If are such that and then ,
• is closed under finite intersections: ,, and if and then .

A ' (or non-degenerate) filter is a filter which is proper as a subset of the powerset (i.e., the only improper filter is , consisting of all possible subsets). By upwards-closure, a filter is proper if and only if it does not contain the empty set. Many authors adopt the convention that a filter must be proper by definition.

When and are two filters on the same set such that holds, is said to be coarser than (or a subfilter of ) while is said to be finer than (or ' to or a superfilter of ).

Examples

• The singleton set is called the trivial or indiscrete filter on .
• If is a subset of , the subsets of which are supersets of form a principal filter.
• If is a topological space and , then the set of neighborhoods of is a filter on , the neighborhood filter or vicinity filter of .
• Many examples arise from various "largeness" conditions:
• If is a set, the set of all cofinite subsets of (i.e., those sets whose complement in is finite) is a filter on , the Fréchet filter (or cofinite filter).
• Similarly, if is a set, the cocountable subsets of (those whose complement is countable) form a filter, the cocountable filter which is finer than the Fréchet filter. More generally, for any cardinal , the subsets whose complement has cardinal at most form a filter.
• If is a metric space, e.g., , the co-bounded subsets of (those whose complement is bounded set) form a filter on .
• If is a complete measure space (e.g., with the Lebesgue measure), the conull subsets of , i.e., the subsets whose complement has measure zero, form a filter on . (For a non-complete measure space, one can take the subsets which, while not necessarily measurable, are contained in a measurable subset of measure zero.)
• Similarly, if is a measure space, the subsets whose complement is contained in a measurable subset of finite measure form a filter on .
• If is a topological space, the comeager subsets of , i.e., those whose complement is meager, form a filter on .
• The subsets of which have a natural density of 1 form a filter on .
• The club filter of a regular uncountable cardinal is the filter of all sets containing a club subset of .
• If is a family of filters on and is a filter on then is a filter on called Kowalsky's filter.

Principal and free filters

The kernel of a filter on is the intersection of all the subsets of in .

A filter on is principal (or atomic) when it has a particularly simple form: it contains exactly the supersets of , for some fixed subset . When , this yields the improper filter. When is a singleton, this filter (which consists of all subsets that contain ) is called the fundamental filter (or discrete filter) associated with .

A filter is principal if and only if the kernel of is an element of , and when this is the case, consists of the supersets of its kernel. On a finite set, every filter is principal (since the intersection defining the kernel is finite).

A filter is said to be free when it has empty kernel, otherwise it is fixed (and if is an element of the kernel, it is fixed by ). A filter on a set is free if and only if it contains the Fréchet filter on .

Two filters and on mesh when every member of intersects every member of . For every filter on , there exists a unique pair of filters (the free part of ) and (the principal part of ) on such that is free, is principal, , and does not mesh with . The principal part is the principal filter generated by the kernel of , and the free part consists of elements of with any number of elements from the kernel possibly removed.

A filter is countably deep if the kernel of any countable subset of belongs to .

Correspondence with order filters

The concept of a filter on a set is a special case of the more general concept of a filter on a partially ordered set. By definition, a filter on a partially ordered set is a subset of which is upwards-closed (if and then ) and downwards-directed (every finite subset of has a lower bound in ). A filter on a set is the same as a filter on the powerset ordered by inclusion.

Constructions of filters

Intersection of filters

If is a family of filters on , its intersection is a filter on . The intersection is a greatest lower bound operation in the set of filters on partially ordered by inclusion, which endows the filters on with a complete lattice structure.

The intersection consists of the subsets which can be written as where for each .

Filter generated by a family of subsets

Given a family of subsets , there exists a minimum filter on (in the sense of inclusion) which contains . It can be constructed as the intersection (greatest lower bound) of all filters on containing . This filter is called the filter generated by , and is said to be a filter subbase of .

The generated filter can also be described more explicitly: is obtained by closing under finite intersections, then upwards, i.e., consists of the subsets such that for some .

Since these operations preserve the kernel, it follows that is a proper filter if and only if has the finite intersection property: the intersection of a finite subfamily of is non-empty.

In the complete lattice of filters on ordered by inclusion, the least upper bound of a family of filters is the filter generated by .

Two filters and on mesh if and only if is proper.

Filter bases

Let be a filter on . A filter base of is a family of subsets such that is the upwards closure of , i.e., consists of those subsets for which for some .

This upwards closure is a filter if and only if is downwards-directed, i.e., is non-empty and for all there exists such that . When this is the case, is also called a prefilter, and the upwards closure is also equal to the generated filter . Hence, being a filter base of is a stronger property than being a filter subbase of .

Examples

• When is a topological space and , a filter base of the neighborhood filter of is known as a neighborhood base for , and similarly, a filter subbase of the neighborhood filter of is known as a neighborhood subbase for . The open neighborhoods of always form a neighborhood base for , by definition of the neighborhood filter. In , the closed balls of positive radius around also form a neighborhood base for .
• Let be an infinite set and let consist of the subsets of which contain all points but one. Then is a filter subbase of the Fréchet filter on , which consists of the cofinite subsets. Its closure under finite intersections is the entire Fréchet filter, but there are smaller bases of the Fréchet filter which contain the subbase , such as the one formed by the subsets of which contain all points but a finite odd number. In fact, for every base of the Fréchet filter, removing any subset yields another base of the Fréchet filter.
• If is a topological space, the dense open subsets of form a filter base on , because they are closed under finite intersection. The filter they generate consists of the complements of nowhere dense subsets. On , restricting to the null dense open subsets yields another filter base for the same filter.
• Similarly, if is a topological space, the countable intersections of dense open subsets form a filter base which generates the filter of comeager subsets.
• Let be a set and let be a net with values in , i.e., a family whose domain is a directed set. The filter base of tails of consists of the sets for ; it is downwards-closed by directedness of . The generated filter is called the eventuality filter or filter of tails of . A sequential filter or ' is a filter which is the eventuality filter of some net. This example is fundamental in the application of filters in topology.
• Every π-system is a filter base.

Trace of a filter on a subset

If is a filter on and , the trace of on is , which is a filter.

Image of a filter by a function

Let be a function.

When is a family of subsets of , its image by is defined as

The image filter by of a filter on is defined as the generated filter . If is surjective, then is already a filter. In the general case, is a filter base and hence is its upwards closure. Furthermore, if is a filter base of then is a filter base of .

The kernels of and are linked by .

Product of filters

Given a family of sets and a filter on each , the product filter on the product set is defined as the filter generated by the sets for and , where is the projection from the product set onto the -th component. This construction is similar to the product topology.

If each is a filter base on , a filter base of is given by the sets where is a family such that for all and for all but finitely many .

See also

• Axiomatic foundations of topological spaces, for a definition of topological spaces in terms of filters
• Convergence space, a generalization of topological spaces using filters
• Generic filter, a kind of filter used in set-theoretic forcing

Notes

Citations

References

• (Provides an introductory review of filters in topology and in metric spaces.)