Tarski's Fixed Point Theorem
Let
be any complete lattice. Suppose
is monotone increasing (or isotone), i.e., for all
,
implies
. Then the set of all fixed points of
is a complete lattice with respect to
(Tarski 1955)
Consequently,
has a greatest fixed point
and a least fixed point
. Moreover, for all
,
implies
, whereas
implies
.
Consider three examples:
1. Let
satisfy
, where
is the usual order of real numbers. Since the closed interval
is a complete lattice, every monotone increasing map
has a greatest fixed point and a least fixed point. Note that
need not be continuous here.
2. For
declare
to mean that
,
,
(coordinatewise order). Let
satisfy
. Then the set
is a complete lattice (with respect to the coordinatewise order). Hence every monotone increasing map
has a greatest fixed point and a least fixed point.
3. Let
and
be injections. Then there is a bijection
(Schröder-Bernstein theorem), which can be constructed as follows. The power set of
ordered by set inclusion,
, is a complete lattice. Since the map
,
 |
(3)
|
is monotone increasing, it has a fixed point
. As
, a bijection
can be defined just by setting
 |
(4)
|
REFERENCES:
Tarski, A. "A Lattice-Theoretical Fixpoint Theorem and Its Applications." Pacific J. Math. 5, 285-309, 1955.