empty set

An empty set is a set $\emptyset$ that contains no elements. The Zermelo-Fraenkel Axioms of set theory imply that there exists an empty set. One constructs an empty set by starting with any set $X$ and then applying the axiom of separation to form the empty set $\emptyset := \{ x \in X \mid x \neq x\}$ .

An empty set is a subset of every other set, and any two empty sets are equal. Alternative notations for the empty set include $\{\}$ and $\varnothing$ .