Basic operations for fuzzy multisets

In their original and ordinary formulation, fuzzy sets associate each element in a reference set with one number, the membership value, in the real unit interval [0, 1]. Among the various existing generalisations of the concept, we find fuzzy multisets. In this case, membership values are multisets in [0, 1] rather than single values. Mathematically, they can also be seen as a generalisation of the hesitant fuzzy sets, but in this general environment, the information about repetition is not lost, so that, the opinions given by the experts are better managed. Thus, we focus our study on fuzzy multisets and their basic operations: complement, union and intersection. Moreover, we show how the hesitant operations can be worked out from an extension of the fuzzy multiset operations and investigate the important role that the concepts of order and sorting sequences play in the basic difference between these two related approaches. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.