Algebraic theories for continuous semilattices (Q1068927)

A (sup) semilattice is said to be continuous if it is complete (all non- empty sups and infs of chains always exist) and each element is the infimum of the elements which lay above it (the order dual of the standard definition). It is shown that continuous semilattices arise as the monadal algebras of (i) the monad of proper filters on sets, (ii) the Vietoris monad of non-empty closed subsets on compact spaces, and (iii) the monad of proper closed (resp. open) filters on topological spaces. (Alternately, one may view these as ''free'' constructions adjoint to the forgetful functor from the category of continuous semilattices to the categories of sets, compact spaces, and topological spaces, respectively) Cases (i) and (ii) are alternate versions of known results for continuous lattices; the properness conditions do not appear in this case.