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Submodular function

In mathematics, a function

f:R^k \mapsto R

is supermodular iff

z,z' \in R^k \Longrightarrow f(z \lor z') + f(z \land z') \geq f(z) + f(z').

Where z \lor z' denotes the component-wise maximum and z \land z' the component-wise minimum of z and z'.

If −f is supermodular then f is called submodular, and if the inequality is changed to an equality the function is modular.

If f is smooth, supermodularity is equivalent to the condition

\partial ^2 f/\partial z_i \partial z_j \geq 0 for all i \neq j.
01-04-2007 01:18:14
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