Characterizations of compact sets in fuzzy sets spaces with $L_p$ metric

Abstract

In this paper, we present characterizations of totally bounded sets, relatively compact sets and compact sets in the fuzzy sets spaces $F_B(\mathbb{R}^m)$ and $F_B(\mathbb{R}^m)^p$ equipped with $L_p$ metric, where $F_B(\mathbb{R}^m)$ and $F_B(\mathbb{R}^m)^p$ are two kinds of general fuzzy sets on $\mathbb{R}^m$ which do not have any assumptions of convexity or star-shapedness. Subsets of $F_B(\mathbb{R}^m)^p$ include common fuzzy sets such as fuzzy numbers, fuzzy star-shaped numbers with respect to the origin, fuzzy star-shaped numbers, and the general fuzzy star-shaped numbers introduced by Qiu et al. The existed compactness criteria are stated for three kinds of fuzzy sets spaces endowed with $L_p$ metric whose universe sets are the former three kinds of common fuzzy sets respectively. Constructing completions of fuzzy sets spaces with respect to $L_p$ metric is a problem which is closely dependent on characterizing totally bounded sets. Based on preceding characterizations of totally boundedness and relatively compactness and some discussions on convexity and star-shapedness of fuzzy sets, we show that the completions of fuzzy sets spaces mentioned in this paper can be obtained by using the $L_p$-extension. We also clarify relation among all the ten fuzzy sets spaces discussed in this paper, which consist of five pairs of original spaces and the corresponding completions. Then, we show that the subspaces of $F_B(\mathbb{R}^m)$ and $F_B(\mathbb{R}^m)^p$ mentioned in this paper have parallel characterizations of totally bounded sets, relatively compact sets and compact sets. At last, as applications of our results, we discuss properties of $L_p$ metric on fuzzy sets space and relook compactness criteria proposed in previous work.