Infimum

Definition (Infimum)

Let ARA\subset\mathbb{R}. If AA is bounded below then the greatest lower bound of A is called the infimum of AA (written infA\inf A).

Theorem (Proving the infimum)

To show that an element aAa\in A is the infimum or that a=infAa= \inf A then we need need to show:

  1. Approximation property of the infimum: ϵ>0,a0A\mboxs.t.a0<infA+ϵ\forall\epsilon>0,\exists a_{0} \in A \mbox{ s.t. } a_{0}<\inf A+\epsilon
  2. Lower bound property: aA,ainfA\forall a\in A, a\ge \inf A

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