Embedding Structures

Abstract.

 For any quasiordered set (`quoset') or topological space S, the set Sub S of all nonempty subquosets or subspaces is quasiordered by embeddability. Given any cardinal number n, denote by p _n and q _n the smallest size of spaces S such that each poset, respectively, quoset with n points is embeddable in Sub S. For finite n, we prove the inequalities n + 1 ≤p _n ≤q _n ≤p _n + l(n) + l(l(n)), where l(n) = min{k∈ℕ∣n≤2^k}. For the smallest size b _n of spaces S so that Sub S contains a principal filter isomorphic to the power set ?(n), we show n + l(n) − 1 ≤b _n ≤n + l(n) + l(l(n))+2. Since p _n ≤b _n , we thus improve recent results of McCluskey and McMaster who obtained p _n ≤n ². For infinite n, we obtain the equation b _n = p _n = q _n = n.