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An element of the underlying vertex set of an abstract simplicial complex; a simplex is a finite subset of these vertices. In a barycentric subdivision, the vertices are nonempty simplices of the original complex.

For standard-form linear programming constraints $Ax=b$ of full row rank, a simplex basis is a set of columns forming an invertible square matrix $B$. The remaining variables are nonbasic; setting them to zero gives the basic solution $x_B=B^{-1}b$. It is feasible if these basic variables are nonnegative. A pivot exchanges one basic and one nonbasic column while maintaining this representation.

For a simple symmetric random walk on the integers, let $T_k$ be the first time that $k$ distinct vertices have been visited. The visited set is an interval, and at $T_k$ the walk is at an endpoint. The Strong Markov property turns the time to add one vertex into gambler's ruin between the two immediately exterior vertices, starting one step from a boundary. The expected duration of symmetric gambler's ruin is therefore $k$. This also holds at $k=1$.

The sediment entrainment threshold is the bed shear stress at which resting grains begin moving. An elementary force balance using spherical grains, tangential quadratic drag, and static friction gives ${\Theta }_{\mathrm{th},0}=4{\mu }_s/(3C_D)$ when the drag coefficient is defined relative to the bed shear velocity.

For downward settling velocity magnitude $W_s$ and near-bed particle volume fraction ${\varphi }_b$, a horizontal absorbing bed receives particle volume per area per time $J_s=W_s{\varphi }_b$. A bed inclined at angle $\vartheta$ to the horizontal receives $W_s{\varphi }_b\cos \vartheta$ per unit actual area, in the absence of resuspension or additional normal fluid motion.

A set $H$ is a hitting set for a set family $\mathcal{F}$ if $H\cap A\ne \varnothing$ for every $A\in \mathcal{F}$. Every set is a hitting set for an empty set family; none is a hitting set for a family containing the empty set. Bounded hitting sets permit finite certificates for some infinite set families, as in the bounded-size transversal kernel.

Two set families $\mathcal{A},\mathcal{B}$ are cross-Sperner when no member of either is a subset of a member of the other, including equality. Thus $\mathcal{A}\cap \mathcal{B}=\varnothing$. Neither family need itself be an antichain. On the Boolean lattice of subsets of $[n]$, the Cross-Sperner inequality bounds $\sqrt{|\mathcal{A}|}+\sqrt{|\mathcal{B}|}$ by $2^{n/2}$.

A multiset records a nonnegative integer multiplicity for each element of a set. A finite multiset has finite support and finite total multiplicity. Its cardinality is the sum of its multiplicities; its disjoint union with another multiset adds multiplicities. The hook lengths of a Young diagram form a multiset, since different cells can have equal lengths.

A pointed set is a set $X$ with a distinguished element $x_0\in X$. A morphism of pointed sets is a function carrying the distinguished element to the distinguished element. The resulting category of pointed sets has every singleton as a zero object.

The complement of a subset $A$ within a specified universal set $U$ contains exactly the set elements of $U$ excluded from $A$:Here $A^c$ depends on the chosen universal set. Within $U$, taking a complement performs logical negation (NOT) on membership. Writing $U\setminus A$ keeps the ambient set visible when there could be ambiguity.

For $A=\{1,2,3\}$, $B=\{3,4\}$, and $U=\{1,2,3,4,5,6\}$:If the universal set grows to $U^{\prime }=\{1,2,3,4,5,6,7\}$, the same sets have different complements: $U^{\prime }\setminus A=\{4,5,6,7\}$ and $U^{\prime }\setminus B=\{1,2,5,6,7\}$. In a database illustration, “records that fail this condition” therefore requires deciding which records are eligible to begin with; those eligible records form $U$.

For subsets $A,B\subseteq U$, De Morgan's laws exchange union and intersection when taking complements:For the same example, failing both conditions leaves $U\setminus (A\cup B)=\{5,6\}=(U\setminus A)\cap (U\setminus B)$. Failing at least one condition leaves $U\setminus (A\cap B)=\{1,2,4,5,6\}=(U\setminus A)\cup (U\setminus B)$. This is useful for rewriting exclusion rules into separate membership tests. The symmetry is also pleasing: exchanging union with intersection turns one rule into its partner.

A brief membership proof works in classical propositional logic. For any $x\in U$, let $P$ mean $x\in A$ and $Q$ mean $x\in B$. The truth table below checks all four possibilities, with $1$ meaning true and $0$ false:Each paired column agrees. Translating logical disjunction (OR), logical conjunction (AND), and logical negation (NOT) back into membership proves the two set equalities. For the general method of reducing set equalities to equivalences in propositional logic, see Lehman, Leighton and Meyer, Mathematics for Computer Science (2015), §4.1.5 and Problem 4.5.

A historical perspective appears in Augustus De Morgan's ^[ref]: he describes treating each name together with its contradictory name. In the membership viewpoint here, a set and its complement likewise pair a condition with its logical negation.

The set difference $A\setminus B$ keeps the set elements of $A$ that do not belong to $B$:Thus set difference combines logical conjunction (AND) with logical negation (NOT): pass the first condition and fail the second. The definition applies to any two sets; $B$ need not be a subset of $A$.

For $A=\{1,2,3\}$ and $B=\{3,4\}$, the two orders give different answers:The common member $3$ is removed in both directions. A database filter illustrates the usefulness: if $A$ is the set of records matching the first condition and $B$ the set matching the second, $A\setminus B$ selects records matching the first but not the second. The Venn diagram in set union shades both directions separately.

The name relative complement emphasizes that the ambient set is $A$: $A\setminus B$ is the complement of $A\cap B$ within $A$. If a larger universal set $U$ contains $A$ and $B$, then $A\setminus B=A\cap (U\setminus B)$. Changing that larger universal set does not change the set difference, because membership still requires belonging to $A$. In ZF the set difference exists by the axiom schema of separation. It also gives relative complements within a fixed tuple domain in finite relation closure for set-theoretic coding.

A set $X$ is Dedekind-finite when no injective function $\mathbb{N}\to X$ exists. In classical Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory this is equivalent to $X$ not being in bijection with a proper subset: an injective non-surjective self-map generates distinct iterates from an element outside its image, and a countably infinite subset permits a shift fixing its complement. A finite set is Dedekind-finite. Without the axiom of choice, some infinite sets can also be Dedekind-finite.

Pairwise disjoint subcubes of $\{0,1{\}}^m$ fixing $d_1,\dots ,d_n$ coordinates satisfy ${\sum }_{x=1}^n{2}^{-d_x}\le 1$. By Jensen inequality, their average codimension is at least ${\log }_{2}n$. Consequently a separating family of disjoint set pairs of total incidence at most $\lambda mn$, with $\lambda >0$, has $m\ge \lceil {\log }_{2}n/\lambda \rceil$.

A finite-dimensional bipartite density operator ${\rho }_{AB}$ is a separable quantum state exactly when $({\mathrm{id}}_A\otimes \Phi )({\rho }_{AB})\ge 0$ for every positive linear map from operators on $B$ to operators on $A$. In combination with the Størmer-Woronowicz decomposability theorem, it makes the positive partial transpose criterion sufficient for qubit-qutrit states. The criterion is established in the Horodeckis' separability paper.

Replacing $x{x}^T$ by a general positive semidefinite matrix relaxes maximization of $\Vert x{\Vert }_2^2$ subject to $|a_i^{T}x|\le 1$. The relaxed value is an upper bound because $x{x}^T$ has trace $\Vert x{\Vert }_2^2$ and satisfies the same quadratic constraints. Both problems are unbounded if the $a_i$ fail to span the ambient space. If they span it, $H={\sum }_i{a}_i{a}_i^T$ is positive definite and ${\lambda }_{\min }(H)\mathrm{tr}X\le \mathrm{tr}(HX)\le m$, proving boundedness and attainment of the relaxation.

A Seifert fiber is one of the circles of a Seifert fibered space. A regular fiber has a product neighborhood; an exceptional fiber has a fibered solid torus neighborhood with multiplicity greater than one.

A horizontal surface is a properly embedded topological surface transverse to every Seifert fiber. Its projection to the base orbifold is an orbifold covering. The covering degree is its intersection number with a regular Seifert fiber.

A vertical surface is a union of Seifert fibers over an arc or a closed curve in the base orbifold. Typical connected examples are an annulus and a torus.

The saturation length measures downstream relaxation of a transported grain population toward its equilibrium sediment transport flux. The elementary steady relaxation law is $L_{\mathrm{sat}}{q}_x=q_{\mathrm{sat}}-q$; it introduces a phase lag between forcing and actual transport.

The equilibrium sediment flux is the transport supported locally by a prescribed bed shear stress. A common idealization is $q_{\mathrm{sat}}={\varphi }_b\chi (\tau -{\tau }_{\mathrm{th}}{)}_{+}^{\gamma }$. Linearization above the sediment entrainment threshold requires perturbations small compared with the positive excess stress.