Hall's Marriage Theorem - Definitions and Statement of The Theorem

Definitions and Statement of The Theorem

Let S be a family of finite sets, where the family may contain an infinite number of sets and the individual sets may be repeated multiple times.

A transversal for S is a set T and a bijection f from T to S such that for all t in T, t is a member of f(t). An alternative term for transversal is system of distinct representatives or "SDR".

The collection S satisfies the marriage condition (MC) if and only if for each subcollection, we have

In other words, the number of sets in each subcollection W is less than or equal to the number of distinct elements in the union over the subcollection W.

Hall's theorem states that S has a transversal (SDR) if and only if S satisfies the marriage condition.

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