Characterization of system signatures

Alessandro D'Andrea, Luca De Sanctis

Published 2012-08-23Version 1

We suggest a purely combinatorial approach to a general problem in system reliability. We show how to determine if a given vector can be the signature of a system, and in the affirmative case exhibit such a system in terms on its structure function. The method employs results from the theory of simplicial sets, and provides a full characterization of signature vectors.