On Partially Ordered Semigroups and an Abstract Set-Difference

Abstract

In this paper we prove the independence of a system of five axioms (S1)–(S5), which was proposed in the book of Pallaschke and Urbanski (Pairs of Compact Convex Sets, vol. 548, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2002) for partially ordered commutative semigroups. These five axioms (S1)–(S5) are stated in the introduction below. A partially ordered commutative semigroup satisfying these axioms is called a F-semigroup. By the use of a further axiom (S6) we define an abstract difference for the elements of a F-semigroup and prove some basic properties. The most interesting example of a F-semigroup are the nonempty compact convex sets of a topological vector space endowed with the Minkowski sum as operation and the inclusion as partial order. In Section 4 we apply the abstract difference to the problem of minimality of convex fractions.