Want to take part in these discussions? Sign in if you have an account, or apply for one below
Vanilla 1.1.10 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.
I noticed that Todd had just edited atom. I had been meaning to add something explaining the difference between “atomic” and “atomistic” so I added the following at atom#remarks_on_terminology.
“Atomic” and “Atomistic” differ for the simple example of the divisor lattice for some number . The atoms in this lattice are prime numbers while it may also contain semi-atoms which are powers of primes. This lattice is atomic because any object not the bottom () is divisible by a prime. However it is not atomistic but instead uniquely semi-atomistic (every non-bottom object is the product of a unique set of semi-atoms), which is one way of stating the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, also known as the unique factorization theorem.
EDIT: I improved my nLab edit and reflected it above.
I did. I’ve had a lingering feeling of guilt about an interchange between the two of us about the terminology in this entry (which took place some time ago), and I felt it was time to own up more fully to the fact that the conventions you pointed out then are in fact the most common (by far). I like your edits by the way.
I’ve improved slightly my addition at atom#remarks_on_terminology, and created the missing page semi-atom. I’ve heard the word “semi-atom” used though I don’t know if there are other words for this notion or who prefers what.
The semi-atom page is now:
A semi-atom is a generalization of the notion of atom in a bottom bounded partial order.
An object is a semi-atom when the interval is a chain, i.e. any two objects and in that interval are comparable ( or ).
All atoms are semi-atoms and usually the bottom is not considered one.
If and are semi-atoms then their meet exists and we have
Examples
The divisor lattice for some number contains prime numbers as atoms and may contain powers of primes as semi-atoms that are not atoms.
1 to 3 of 3