Mathematical structure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_structure

In abstract algebra, a mathematical structure is a set, referred to as a carrier set, endowed with one or more additional features, such as operations, relations, orders, metrics, topologies. Almost always, these extra features, whether attached or just related to the carrier set, endow it with some additional meaning.

List of mathematical structures

Mathematical structures include

  • measures

  • algebraic structures (groups, fields...)

  • topologies

  • metric structures (geometries)

  • orders

  • events

  • equivalence relations

  • differential structures

  • categories

Sometimes, a set is endowed with more than one structure simultaneously, which allows mathematicians to study the interaction between the different structures more richly. For example, an ordering imposes a rigid form, shape, or topology on the set, and if a set has both a topology structure and a group structure, such that these two structures are related in a certain way, then the set becomes a topological group.

Mappings between sets which preserve structures (i.e. structures in the source or domain are mapped to equivalent structures in the destination or codomain) are of special interest in many fields of mathematics:

  • homomorphisms preserve algebraic structures

  • homeomorphisms preserve topological structures

  • diffeomorphisms preserve differential structures

Last updated