Equidecomposable magmas (Q2217775): Difference between revisions

The word magma stands for an algebraic structure with a single binary operation. Free magmas are equidecomposable, which means that the binary operation is injective (i.e., \(x*y=u*v\) implies \(x=u\) and \(y=v\)). The converse fails, consider the magma of rooted binary trees of arbitrary height (possibly infinite). Nevertheless, the two concepts are closely related: a magma is free if and only if it is equidecomposable and it is generated by its indecomposable elements. The present paper is a thorough study of equidecomposable magmas. For example, it is proved that every equidecomposable magma is a disjoint union of the submagma generated by its indecomposable elements and the largest submagma where the operation is surjective. The paper culminates with a combinatorial characterization of finitely presented equidecomposable magmas.