Duality (order theory)

In the mathematical area of order theory, every partially ordered set P gives rise to a dual (or opposite) partially ordered set which is often denoted by P or P. This dual order P is defined to be the set with the inverse order, i.e. x ≤ y holds in P if and only if y ≤ x holds in P. It is easy to see that this construction, which can be depicted by flipping the Hasse diagram for P upside down, will indeed yield a partially ordered set. In a broader sense, two posets are also said to be duals if they are dually isomorphic, i.e. if one poset is order isomorphic to the dual of the other.