1.1 Basic Mathematics

1.1.1 Mathematical notation

• ≈ : approximately equal

• ~ : CST ·

Supremum and infimum vs. maximum and minimum

The concept of supremum, or least upper bound, is as follows: Let $ S={a[n]} $, the sequence with terms $ a[0],a[1],\cdots $ over all the nonnegative integers. $ S $ has a supremum, called $ \sup S $ , if for every $ n , a[n]\leq\sup S $ (i.e. no a[n] exceeds $ \sup S $ ), and furthermore, $ \sup S $ is the least value with this property; that is, if $ a[n]\leq b $ for all $ n $, then $ \sup S\leq b $ for all such </math>b$ . This is why the supremum is also called the least upper bound, for a bound is a number which a function, sequence, or set, never exceeds. Similarly, one can define the infimum <math>\inf S $ , or greatest lower bound.