On the two kinds of probability in algebra (Q583255): Difference between revisions

A groupoid table on the set \(\{\) 0,1,...,n-1\(\}\) is an \(n\times n\) matrix with entries from \(\{\) 0,1,...,n-1\(\}\). Let \({\mathcal T}_ n\) be the set of groupoid tables on the set \(\{\) 0,1,...,n-1\(\}\). If P is a groupoid property, we define the probability of P by \[ \Pr (P;{\mathcal T})=\lim_{n\to \infty}\Pr (P;{\mathcal T}_ n) \] where \[ \Pr (P;{\mathcal T}_ n)=| \{{\mathbb{T}}\in {\mathcal T}_ n:\quad {\mathbb{T}}\vDash P\}| /n^{n^ 2}. \] Of course, any given groupoid may be represented by many tables, so a more natural definition of probability would seem to be one which took account of this. More precisely, let \({\mathcal K}\) be any infinite set of finite algebras such that \({\mathcal K}_ n\) (the set of n- element mumbers of \({\mathcal K})\) is finite. Then the probability of a property P in \({\mathcal K}\) is defined to be \[ \Pr (P;{\mathcal K})=\lim_{n\to \infty}\Pr (P;{\mathcal K}_ n) \] where \[ \Pr (P;{\mathcal K}_ n)=| \{{\mathbb{A}}\in {\mathcal K}_ n:\quad {\mathbb{A}}\vDash P\}| /| {\mathcal K}_ n| \] and the limit is taken over those n for which \({\mathcal K}_ n\neq \emptyset.\) These probability concepts which, in analogy with graph theory, we might describe as labelled and unlabelled, can be generalized to any finite similarity type, \(\tau\). The interesting main result of this paper is that if \(\tau\) has an operation of arity at least 2, or has at least three unary operations, then these probabilities coincide. An example is given to show that these probabilities can differ for 2-unary algebras. \textit{J. F. Lynch} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 287, 543-568 (1985; Zbl 0526.03012)] has shown that, for unary algebras, the labelled probability of any property expressible in first order logic must exist, while \textit{K. J. Compton}, \textit{C. W. Henson} and \textit{S. Shelah} [Ann. Pure Appl. Logic 36, 207-224 (1987; Zbl 0632.03037)] have given an example showing that this is not the case for algebras with a binary operation. The results of this paper show that the same is true for unlabelled probability, provided that, in the unary case, there are at least three operations.