Pseudocomplement

In mathematics, particularly in order theory, a pseudocomplement is one generalization of the notion of complement. In a lattice L with bottom element 0, an element xL is said to have a pseudocomplement if there exists a greatest element x* ∈ L, disjoint from x, with the property that xx* = 0. More formally, x* = max{ yL | xy = 0 }. The lattice L itself is called a pseudocomplemented lattice if every element of L is pseudocomplemented. Every pseudocomplemented lattice is necessarily bounded, i.e. it has a 1 as well. Since the pseudocomplement is unique by definition (if it exists), a pseudocomplemented lattice can be endowed with a unary operation * mapping every element to its pseudocomplement; this structure is sometimes called a p-algebra.[1][2] However this latter term may have other meanings in other areas of mathematics.

Properties

In a p-algebra L, for all x, yL:[1][2]

The set S(L) ≝ { x** | xL } is called the skeleton of L. S(L) is a ∧-subsemilattice of L and together with xy = (xy)** = (x* ∧ y*)* forms a Boolean algebra (the complement in this algebra is *).[1][2] In general, S(L) is not a sublattice of L.[2] In a distributive p-algebra, S(L) is the set of complemented elements of L..[1]

Every element x with the property x* = 0 (or equivalently, x** = 1) is called dense. Every element of the form xx* is dense. D(L), the set of all the dense elements in L is a filter of L.[1][2] A distributive p-algebra is Boolean if and only if D(L) = {1}.[1]

Pseudocomplemented lattices form a variety.[2]

Examples

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T.S. Blyth (2006). Lattices and Ordered Algebraic Structures. Springer Science & Business Media. Chapter 7. Pseudocomplementation; Stone and Heyting algebras. pp. 103–119. ISBN 978-1-84628-127-3.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Clifford Bergman (2011). Universal Algebra: Fundamentals and Selected Topics. CRC Press. pp. 63–70. ISBN 978-1-4398-5129-6.
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