Abstract

Maji et al. introduced the concept of fuzzy soft sets as a generalization of the standard soft sets and presented an application of fuzzy soft sets in a decision making problem. The aim of this paper is to apply the concept of fuzzy soft sets to -ary hypergroup theory. The concepts of -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroups over a commutative -ary hypergroup are introduced and some related properties and characterizations are obtained. The homomorphism properties of -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroups are also derived.

1. Introduction

To solve complicated problems in economics, engineering, and environment, we cannot successfully use classical methods because of various uncertainties typical for those problems. There are three theories: theory of probability, theory of fuzzy sets, and the interval mathematics, which we can consider as mathematical tools for dealing with uncertainties. However, all of these have their advantages as well as inherent limitations in dealing with uncertainties. One major problem shared by those theories is their incompatibility with the parameterization tools. To overcome these difficulties, Molodtsov [1] introduced the concept of soft set as a new mathematical tool for dealing with uncertainties that is free from the difficulties that have troubled the usual theoretical approaches. Molodtsov pointed out several directions for the applications of soft sets. This theory has proven useful in many different fields such as decision making [26], data analysis [7, 8], and forecasting [9].

Up to the present, research on soft sets has been very active and many important results have been achieved in the theoretical aspect. Maji et al. [10] introduced several algebraic operations in soft set theory and published a detailed theoretical study on soft sets. Ali et al. [11] further presented and investigated some new algebraic operations for soft sets. Qin and Hong [12] further investigated the algebraic structure of soft sets and established the soft quotient algebra. Maji et al. [13] and Majumdar and Samanta [14] extended (classical) soft sets to fuzzy soft sets, respectively. Maji et al. [15] extended (classical) soft sets to intuitionistic fuzzy soft sets, which were further discussed by Maji et al. [16] and Jiang et al. [17]. Aktaş and Çağman [18] compared soft sets to the related concepts of fuzzy sets and rough sets. They also defined the notion of soft groups and derived some related properties. Aygünoğlu and Aygün [19] discussed the applications of fuzzy soft sets to group theory and investigated (normal) fuzzy soft groups. Feng et al. [20] investigated soft semirings by using the soft set theory. Jun [21] introduced and investigated the notion of soft BCK/BCI-algebras. Jun and Park [22] and Jun et al. [23] discussed the applications of soft sets in ideal theory of BCK/BCI-algebras and in -algebras, respectively. Acar et al. [24] introduced and studied soft rings. Zhan and Jun [25] characterized the (implicative, positive implicative, and fantastic) filteristic soft -algebras based on -soft sets and -soft sets.

On the other hand, the fuzzy sets and hyperstructures introduced by Zadeh and Marty, respectively, are now extensively applied to many disciplines. The study of fuzzy hyperstructures is an interesting research topic of fuzzy sets. There is a considerable amount of work on the connections between fuzzy sets and hyperstructures. The reader is referred to [2638]. As a generalization of the concepts of “belongingness ( )” and “quasi-coincidence ( )” of a fuzzy point with a fuzzy set introduced by Pu and Liu [39], Yin and Zhan [40] introduced the concepts of “ -belongingness ( )” and “ -quasi-coincidence ( )” of a fuzzy point with a fuzzy set. Using these new concepts, Yin and Zhan [40] introduced the concepts of -fuzzy (implicative, positive implicative, and fantastic) filters and -fuzzy (implicative, positive implicative, and fantastic) filters of -algebras, where , , , and , and some related properties were investigated. Special attention is paid to -fuzzy (implicative, positive implicative, and fantastic) filters and -fuzzy (implicative, positive implicative, and fantastic) filters which are generalizations of -fuzzy (implicative, positive implicative, and fantastic) filters and -fuzzy (implicative, positive implicative, and fantastic) filters studied by Ma et al. [41, 42]. This idea is continued and studied by Ma et al. [43], Yin and Zhan [44, 45], Yin et al. [46], and so on. The purpose of this paper is to deal with the algebraic structure of -ary hypergroups by applying fuzzy soft set theory. We introduce the concepts of -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroups over a commutative -ary hypergroup and focus on investigating their characterization and algebraic properties. We also discuss the homomorphism properties of -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroups.

2. Preliminaries

In this section, we recall some basic notions and results about -ary hypergroups, fuzzy sets, and fuzzy soft sets (see [13, 28, 30, 47]).

2.1. n-Ary Hypergroups

We will be concerned primarily with a basic nonempty set . Denote by the cartesian product , where appears times. An element of will be denoted by , where for all . In general, a mapping is called an -ary hyperoperation and is called the arity of the hyperoperation . Let be an -ary hyperoperation on and subsets in . Define In the sequel, we will denote the sequence by . For , . Thus, will be written as . Also means for and .

with an -ary hyperoperation is called an -ary hypergroupoid and will be denoted by . An -ary hypergroupoid is said to be an -ary semihypergroup if the following associative axiom holds: for all and . An -ary semihypergroup is said to be an -ary hypergroup if, for all and fixed , there exists such that . An -ary hypergroup is said to be commutative if, for all and any permutation of , we have . An element of is called an identity of if, for any and , we have .

Definition 1. Let be an -ary hypergroup and a nonempty subset of . One says that is an -ary subhypergroup of if the following conditions hold:(i) is closed under the -ary hyperoperation ;(ii)for all and fixed , there exists such that .

In what follows, denotes a commutative -ary hypergroup with an identity unless otherwise stated.

An -ary subhypergroup of is said to be invertible if, for any , implies .

2.2. Fuzzy Sets

Let be a nonempty set. A fuzzy subset of is defined as a mapping from into , where is the usual interval of real numbers. We denote by the set of all fuzzy subsets of . For , by , we mean for all . And the union and intersection of and , denoted by and , are defined as the fuzzy subsets of by and for all .

For and , the sequence is denoted by , and if . Moreover, for , the sequence is denoted by , and denotes the zero fuzzy set if .

For any and , define a fuzzy subset of by for all . In particular, when , is said to be the characteristic function of , denoted by , and when , is said to be a fuzzy point with support and value and is denoted by .

In what follows, let be such that . For a fuzzy point and a fuzzy subset of , we say that(1) if ;(2) if ;(3) if or [40].

Let us now introduce a new relation on , denoted by “ ,” as follows.

For any , by , we mean that implies for all and . Moreover, and are said to be -equal, denoted by , if and .

In the sequel, unless otherwise stated, means that does not hold, where .

Lemma 2 (see [40]). Let . Then if and only if for all .

Lemma 3 (see [40]). Let . If and   , then .

Proof. It is straightforward by Lemma 2

Lemmas 2 and 3 give that “ ” is an equivalence relation on . It is also worth noticing that if and only if for all by Lemma 2

2.3. Fuzzy Soft Sets

Let be an initial universe set and the set of all possible parameters under consideration with respect to . As a generalization of soft set introduced by Molodtsov [1], Maji et al. [13] defined fuzzy soft set in the following way.

Definition 4. A pair is called a fuzzy soft set over , where and is a mapping given by .

In general, for every , is a fuzzy set of and it is called fuzzy value set of parameter . The set of all fuzzy soft sets over with parameters from is called fuzzy soft classes, and it is denoted by . A fuzzy soft set in is said to have sup-property if, for any and , there exists such that .

Let and . Define to be a fuzzy soft set by for all . For any fuzzy point in , define to be a fuzzy soft set by for all .

Definition 5 (see [6]). Let and be two fuzzy soft sets over . One says that is a fuzzy soft subset of and writes if(i) ;(ii)for any , .
and are said to be fuzzy soft equal and write if and .

Let us now introduce some new concepts on fuzzy soft sets analogous to the concepts introduced by Ali et al. [11].

Definition 6. The extended intersection of two fuzzy soft sets and over is a fuzzy soft set denoted by , where and for all . This is denoted by .

Definition 7. Let and be two fuzzy soft sets over such that . The restricted intersection of and is defined to be the fuzzy soft set , where and for all . This is denoted by .

Definition 8. Let and . A fuzzy soft set over is said to be a relative whole -fuzzy soft set (with respect to universe set , parameter set , and value ), denoted by , if for all .

Definition 9. Let and be two fuzzy soft sets over . One says that is -fuzzy soft subset of and writes if(i) ;(ii)for any , .
and are said to be -fuzzy soft equal and write if and .

Clearly, implies by Lemma 2 and Definition 9.

Lemma 10. Let , , and be fuzzy soft sets over . If and , then .

Proof. It is straightforward by Lemma 3 and Definition 9.

Lemmas 2 and 10 and Definition 9 give that “ ” is an equivalence relation on .

3. A New Operation on Fuzzy Soft Sets over an -Ary Hypergroupoid

We first introduce a fuzzy -ary hyperoperation on an -ary hypergroupoid as follows.

Definition 11. Let be an -ary hypergroupoid and . Define a fuzzy -ary hyperoperation by for all . In particular, for any and , define for all .

Clearly, for any and , . Note that, for any and , by Definition 11, .

Definition 12. Let be an -ary hypergroupoid and , where and is an index set, such that . One defines a fuzzy soft set over , denoted by , where and for all . This is denoted by .

In the following, we will denote the sequence by . For , is the empty set. The following elementary facts follow easily from the definition.

Lemma 13. Let be an -ary hypergroupoid and . Then(1)if is an -ary semihypergroup and , then for all ;(2)if is commutative and , then the value of does not depend on the permutation of ;(3)if for all and , then ;(4)if and , then and if .

4. -Fuzzy Soft (Invertible) -Ary Subhypergroups over a Commutative -Ary Hypergroup

In this section, we will introduce and investigate the concept of -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroups over a commutative -ary hypergroup. Let us start by giving the following concept.

Definition 14. Let . Then is called -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over if it satisfies the following conditions:(F1a)for all and , ;(F2a)for all and , ;(F3a)for all and , there exists such that An -fuzzy -ary subhypergroup over is said to be invertible if it satisfies the following:(F4a)for all and ,

Example 15. Let be the residue class of modulo 8 with an -ary hyperoperation as follows: Then, is a commutative -ary hypergroup. Let and . Define a fuzzy soft set over by for all and . Then is an -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroup over .

Next let us first provide some auxiliary lemmas as follows.

Lemma 16. Let . Then (F2a) holds if and only if one of the following conditions holds:(F2b) ;(F2c)for all and , , ;(F2d)for all and , .

Proof. (F2a) (F2b) Assume that (F2a) holds. Then, for any and , we have and so by Lemma 2. Therefore, .
(F2b) (F2c) Let and . Since , for all , we have and so .
(F2c) (F2d) This is straightforward.
(F2d) (F2a) Let , , and be such that . Then, by Lemma 2 and (F2d), we have This implies for all and . Hence, (F2a) holds.

Lemma 17. Let . Then, one has the following.(1)(F3a) holds if and only if the following condition holds: (F3b) for all and , there exists such that (2)If (F3a) holds, then the following condition holds:(F3c) for all and , Moreover, (F3c) implies (F3a) if has the sup-property or is finite.

Proof. (F3a) (F3b) Let and . By (F3a), there exists such that This implies , , and so It follows that , , , and so (F3b) holds.
(F3b) (F3a) Let . By (F3b), there exists such that It follows from Lemma 2 that This implies and , , , . Hence, and so (F3a) holds.
(F3a) (F3c) This is straightforward by (F3b).
In the following, assume that has the sup-property or is finite. We prove (F3c) (F3a). Let . If, for any such that , we have then since has the sup-property or is finite, we have which contradicts , , , by Lemma 2. Hence (F3a) holds.

Lemma 18. Let . Then (F4a) holds if and only if the following condition holds:
( ) for all , , and , implies .

Proof. (F4a) (F4c) Let and . If but . Then but , and , . Then gives and so , ; that is, , . Thus we have , a contradiction. Hence (F4c) holds.
(F4c) (F4a) Let . If there exists such that , then and . This implies that , but , , a contradiction. Hence , , , , and so , , , , , , . In a similar way, we have , , , , , , . Thus (F4a) holds.

For any fuzzy soft set over , , and , denote , , and . The next theorem presents the relationships between -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroups over and crisp (invertible) -ary subhypergroups of .

Theorem 19. Let . Then,(1) is an -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroup over if and only if nonempty subset is an (invertible) -ary subhypergroup of for all and ;(2)if , then is an -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroup over if and only if nonempty subset is an (invertible) -ary subhypergroup of for all and ;(3) is an -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroup over if and only if nonempty subset is an (invertible) -ary subhypergroup of for all and .

Proof. We only prove (2) and (3). (1) can be easily proved.
(2) Assume that . Let be an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over and assume that for some and . Let . Then ; that is, . Since is an -fuzzy -ary subhypergroup over , we have for all . Hence, by , From , that is, , we have and so . Similarly we can show that and, for all , there exists such that . Therefore, is an -ary hypergroup of .
Conversely, assume that the given condition holds. Let and . If there exists such that , take . Then , , , that is, , but , a contradiction. Hence and so . Similarly we can show that conditions (F1a) and (F3a) hold. Therefore, is an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over .
(3) Let be an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over and assume that for some and . Let . Then ; that is, or , or . Since is an -fuzzy -ary subhypergroup over , we have for all and so since in any case. Now we consider the following cases.
Case  1 . In this case, . (1)If or or , then . Hence .(2)If , for all , then . Hence .
Case  2 . In this case, . (1)If , for all , then . Hence .(2)If or or , then . Hence .
Thus, in any case, ; that is, . Similarly, we can show that and, for all , there exists such that . Therefore, is an -ary hypergroup of .
Conversely, assume that the given condition holds. Let and . If there exists such that , then , and , that is, , but , that is, , but , a contradiction. Hence and so . Similarly, we can show that conditions (F1a) and (F3a) hold. Therefore, is an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over .

As a direct consequence of Theorem 19, we have the following results.

Corollary 20. Let be such that , , , and . Then every -fuzzy (invertible) -ary soft subhypergroup over is an -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroup over .

Corollary 21. Let . Then is an (invertible) -ary subhypergroup of if and only if is an -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroup over for any and .

Lemma 22. Let . Then for all .

Proof. It is straightforward.

Lemma 23. Let be an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over . Then(1) for all ;(2) , , for all and .

Proof. (1) Let be an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over , , and . Since , for all , we have Therefore, and so .
(2) Let and . By (1), we have This completes the proof.

Lemma 24. Let be an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over . Then is invertible if and only if for all , , and . Proof
It is straightforward by Lemmas 18 and 23.

Lemma 25. Let , be -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroups over . Then(1) , , , , for all and ;(2)for all such that and , one has .

Proof. (1) Let and . Then, by Lemma 23, we have It follows that This implies . In a similar way, we have , . Hence .
(2) Let be such that and . Then . Thus, we have This completes the proof.

Theorem 26. Let be -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroup over for all and . Then is an -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroup over .

Proof. Since each is an -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroup over for all , let . It is clear that , , , , for all . From Lemma 23, for any , we have In particular, we have Now we show that for all ; that is, is invertible. In fact, by Lemmas 23 and 25(1), we have
Next, let be such that . Then by Lemma 25(2), we have .
Summing up the above arguments, is an -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroup over .

Theorem 27. Let and be two -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroups over . Then both and are -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroups over .

Proof. Let and be -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroups over and . Then, for any , we consider the following cases.
Case  1 . In this case, . It follows that satisfies conditions (F1a), (F2a), and (F3a) since is an -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroup over .
Case  2 . In this case, . It follows that satisfies conditions (F1a), (F2a), and (F3a) since is an -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroup over .
Case  3 . In this case, . Now we show that satisfies conditions (F1a), (F2a), and (F3a). (1)For any , we have (2)Let be such that . Then It follows that .(3)Let be such that . Analogous to (2), we have
Therefore, is an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over . The case for can be similarly proved.

5. The Homomorphism of -Fuzzy Soft (Invertible) Subhypergroups

In this section, we consider the homomorphism properties of -fuzzy soft (invertible) subhypergroups. Let us first introduce the following definition.

Definition 28. Let and be two fuzzy soft classes, and let and be mappings. Define a mapping by the following: for , the image of under , denoted by , is a fuzzy soft set in given by for all and . For , the inverse image of under , denoted by , is a fuzzy soft set in given by for all and .

The following results can be easily deduced.

Lemma 29. Let and and be two mappings. Then(1) and if both and are injective;(2) ;(3) if is injective;(4)if , then .

Lemma 30. Let and and be two mappings. Then(1) and if both and are surjective;(2) ;(3) ;(4)if , then .

Definition 31. Let and be two -ary hypergroups with identities and , respectively, and a mapping from to . Then, is called a homomorphism if and for all . If such a homomorphism is surjective, injective, or bijective, it is called an epimorphism, a monomorphism, or an isomorphism.

Lemma 32. Let and be two -ary hypergroups with identities and , respectively, a homomorphism, and a mapping. Then for all such that and if is injective.

Proof. Let , , and . If , then . Otherwise, we have Hence . If is injective, then the symbol “ ” in the above proof can be replaced with “=”; hence , .

Theorem 33. Let and be two commutative -ary hypergroups with identities and , respectively, a homomorphism, and an injective mapping. Let be an -fuzzy -ary soft subhypergroup over which has the sup-property. Then, is an -fuzzy -ary subhypergroup over . If is an epimorphism from onto and is invertible, then is also invertible.

Proof. Assume that is an -fuzzy -ary soft subhypergroup over which has the sup-property and . Then there exists a unique such that and we have the following.(1)It is clear that for all .(2)By Lemma 32, we have (3)Let . If or , then for . Otherwise, there exist such that , , and for all since has the sup-property. Now, for , since is an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over , there exists such that and . Hence we have Summing up the above analysis, is an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over .
Next assume that is an epimorphism from onto and that is an invertible -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over . Then, for any , we have Similarly, we have It follows that since .
Therefore, is invertible.

Theorem 34. Let and be two commutative -ary hypergroups with identities and , respectively, a homomorphism, and a mapping. Let be an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over . Then is an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over . If both and are injective and is an -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroup over , then is an -fuzzy soft (invertible) -ary subhypergroup over .

Proof. Assume that is an -fuzzy soft -ary subhypergroup over . Let . Then we have the following.(1)For any , .(2)Let be such that . Then and so It follows that .(3)Let be such that . Then . Since is invertible, by Lemma 25(2), we have Summing up the above analysis, is an -fuzzy -ary soft subhypergroup over . If both and are injective and is an -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroup over , it is easy to check that is an -fuzzy soft invertible -ary subhypergroup over .

6. Conclusions

In this paper, our aim is to promote the research and development of fuzzy soft technology by studying fuzzy soft -ary hypergroups which generalize some algebra structures: soft groups, fuzzy -ary hypergroups, fuzzy hypergroups, and so on. The goal is to explain new methodological development in -ary hypergroups which will also be of growing importance in the future. The results presented in this paper can hopefully provide more insight into and a full understanding of fuzzy soft set theory and algebraic hyperstructures. Our future work on this topic will focus on studying some other classes of fuzzy soft -ary hypergroups.

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

Acknowledgment

This research was supported by the TianYuan Special Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11226264).