Suppose I have a collection of objects {X(i,j)}_{i,j=1}^{n} (which could be anything - numbers, functions, matrices, …)

albiguguiismx

albiguguiismx

Answered question

2022-09-04

Indexing a set of objects with a symmetry or antisymmetry property
Suppose I have a collection of objects { X ( i , j ) } i , j = 1 n (which could be anything - numbers, functions, matrices, …) indexed by 1 i , j n, such that the following holds:
X ( i , j ) = X ( j , i ) .
Up to the above constraint, all of the objects are different. If I want to index every object, such that no equal object is indexed more than once, I can impose the condition that i j in my indexing.
My question is, how do I generalize this to sets of objects with more than two indices. For example, if I have {X(i,j,k)} such that
X ( i , j , k ) = X ( k , j , i ) ,
or {X(i,j,k,l)} such that
X ( i , j , k , l ) = X ( l , k , j , i ) ,
what condition on the indices can I impose so that I index each non-equal object exactly once?

Answer & Explanation

gasskadeu7

gasskadeu7

Beginner2022-09-05Added 21 answers

Step 1
You want the upper triangular elements of a symmetric matrix.
- Symmetric
For i j you have n ( n + 1 ) 2 unique elements that are indexed as
i n d e x ( i , j ) = n ( i 1 ) i ( i 1 ) 2 + j
Here is an example for n = 4, with i = 1 n the row index and j = 1 n the column index
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Step 2
- Anti-symmetric
For i < j you have n ( n 1 ) 2 unique elements that are indexed as
i n d e x ( i , j ) = n ( i 1 ) i ( i + 1 ) 2 + j
Here is an example for n = 4, with i = 1 n the row index and j = 1 n the column index
1 2 3 4 5 6
Ashlynn Cox

Ashlynn Cox

Beginner2022-09-06Added 12 answers

Step 1
If you have k indices ( i 1 , , i k ), then for an object X ( i 1 , , i k ), either the values of the indices are palindorimic (ie i j = i n + 1 j for all 1 j k) in which case there is no choice to be made;
Step 2
or there is some minimal 1 d k / 2 such that i d i n + 1 d but for any 1 j < d, i j = i n + 1 j . Choose X ( i 1 , , i k ) if i d < i n + 1 d , and choose X ( i k , , i 1 ) if i d > i n + 1 d

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