Representing complex intuitionistic fuzzy set by quaternion numbers and applications to decision making

Abstract Intuitionistic fuzzy sets are useful for modeling uncertain data of realistic problems. In this paper, we generalize and expand the utility of complex intuitionistic fuzzy sets using the space of quaternion numbers. The proposed representation can capture composite features and convey multi-dimensional fuzzy information via the functions of real membership, imaginary membership, real non-membership, and imaginary non-membership. We analyze the order relations and logic operations of the complex intuitionistic fuzzy set theory and introduce new operations based on quaternion numbers. We also present two quaternion distance measures in algebraic and polar forms and analyze their properties. We apply the quaternion representations and measures to decision-making models. The proposed model is experimentally validated in medical diagnosis, which is an emerging application for tackling patient’s symptoms and attributes of diseases.