Multiset - Examples

Examples

One of the simplest and most natural examples is the multiset of prime factors of a number n. Here the underlying set of elements is the set of prime divisors of n. For example the number 120 has the prime factorization

which gives the multiset {2, 2, 2, 3, 5}.

A related example is the multiset of solutions of an algebraic equation. A quadratic equation, for example, has two solutions. However, in some cases they are both the same number. Thus the multiset of solutions of the equation could be { 3, 5 }, or it could be { 4, 4 }. In the latter case it has a solution of multiplicity 2.

A special case of the above are the eigenvalues of a matrix, if these are defined as the multiset of roots of its characteristic polynomial. However a choice is made here: the (usual) definition of eigenvalues does not refer to the characteristic polynomial, and other possibilities give rise to different notions of multiplicity, and therefore to different multisets. The geometric multiplicity of λ as eigenvalue of a matrix A is the dimension of the kernel of A - λI, which is often smaller than its multiplicity as root of the characteristic polynomial (the algebraic multiplicity) when the latter is larger than 1. The set of eigenvalues of A is also the set of roots of its minimal polynomial, but the multiset of those roots need not be the same either as the one defined using algebraic multiplicity, or using the geometric multiplicity.