Basic concepts question. I am used to the Cartesian product of two sets: $A \times B = \{(a,b) \mid a \in A, b \in B\}$. Is there an operator that produces sets instead of tuples? We might call it _set-product_ and define $A \otimes B := \{a \cup b \mid a\in A, b\in B\}$. What I am actually trying to do is "factorize" a given set-family $\mathcal M \subseteq 2^V$ where $V$ is the base set. That is, I would like to write $\mathcal M = M_1 \otimes M_2 \otimes M_3$ with $M_i \subseteq 2^V$. _example_: - $\mathcal M = \{\{1,2\}, \{1,3\}, \{1,6\}\}$ can be factorized into $\{\{1\}\} \otimes \{\{2\},\{3\},\{6\}\}$ **My questions are:** - do people use this operator (if so, what is it called? I don't want to reinvent the wheel)? - do you know of results relating to the factorizability of sets in this way? My goal is to connect what I am doing to existing work. **EDIT**: - fixed errors in question and definition of $\otimes$