Gumm's theorem and the structure of minimal algebras (Q1344848)

The author calls an algebra \(A\) 1-Abelian if for any binary polynomial \(f(x, y)\) and \(a, b, c, d\in A\), \(f(a, c)= f(a, d)\) implies \(f(b, c)= f(b, d)\). That is, 1-Abelian algebras are required to satisfy the term condition for binary polynomials only. The author proves the following stronger version of Gumm's Theorem. Theorem 1: For an algebra \(A\) the following conditions are equivalent: (1) \(A\) is Mal'tsev and 1-Abelian. (2) \(A\) is polynomially equivalent to a module over a ring. A minimal algebra is an algebra in which every unary polynomial is either constant or bijective. Theorem 2: Let \(A\) be a finite minimal algebra with more than 2 elements. Then every binary polynomial which depends on both arguments is a quasigroup operation and \(A\) is 1-Abelian. Theorems 1 and 2 lead to Pálfy's Theorem stating that a finite non-unary minimal algebra of at least 3 elements is polynomially equivalent to a finite vector space.