Talk:Knaster–Tarski theorem

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Mathematics rating: Stub Class Low Priority  Field: Foundations, logic, and set theory

[edit] References

I wasn't sure about including the reference in Slovak language. It was the book where I learned about this topic and I somehow felt, that this book should be credited. (Namely the historical remarks come from this book, in the mentioned contribution.) But for English-speaking readers this reference is useless.

Sometimes it happens that sources in other languages are better or a wikipedian has feeling that they deserve to be included - as they were his primary source. In my opinion in such case also sources in foreing languages should be included. I think that references should include both - the sources which where actually used and sources which are easily accessible.

What would you say?

(I posted this question also to Wikipedia_talk:Cite_sources#Clarifying_.22further_reading.22_vs_.22references.22 - it might be more appropriate place.

--Kompik 14:04:35, 2005-09-10 (UTC)

[edit] Reference for this form of the theorem?

I have found this theorem in various textbooks (including the references mentioned in the article) only in the form the the set of fixed points is non-empty or that there is the largest/smallest fixed point. Are you aware of any textbook using the same formulation as in the article (the set of all fixed points is a complete lattice)? I would be grateful for any pointer.

BTW it is probably useful to mention that this theorem (or some form of it) is sometimes mentioned also in connectin with the name Kleene (as far as I remember, it was in some books from computer science and logic, but it was a long time ago when I stumbled upon this, so I am not able to give any exact reference).

--158.195.15.9 09:37, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

The theorem is presented in this article essentially as it was proved in Tarski's paper listed in the references section. The fact that the collection of fixed point forms a complete lattice implies that there is a fixed point — although Tarski proved the collection was nonempty before proving it to be complete. As for Kleene, I suspect you are thinking of the Kleene fixpoint theorem. That theorem assumes that the map for which we want fixed points is continuous and not merely monotone. Michael Slone (talk) 15:52, 23 November 2006 (UTC)