Completely dissociative groupoids.

Abstract: Consider arbitrarily parenthesized expressions on the

k

variables

x_{0}, x_{1}, ..., x_{k - 1}

, where each

x_{i}

appears exactly once and in the order of their indices. We call these expressions {em formal

k

--products}.

F^{s} i g m a (k)

denotes the set of formal

k

--products. For

, the claim, that

and

produce equal elements in a groupoid

G

for all values assumed in

G

by the variables

x_{i}

, attributes to

G

a {em generalized associative law}. Many groupoids are {em completely dissociative}; i.e., no generalized associative law holds for them; two examples are the groupoids on

0, 1

whose binary operations are implication and NAND. We prove a variety of results of that flavor.

Review text

For a fixed integer \(k\geq 3\), consider a groupoid identity \(x_1\cdots x_k=x_1\cdots x_k\) where the left hand side and the right hand side are parenthesized in different ways. A groupoid \(G\) is \(k\)-dissociative if no such identity holds in \(G\), and it is completely dissociative if it is \(k\)-dissociative for every \(k\geq 3\).NEWLINENEWLINE The paper introduces some elementary techniques by which one can often decide whether a small groupoid is completely dissociative. For instance, it is shown that among the \(16\) groupoids of order \(2\) precisely \(6\) are completely dissociative, including the groupoids expressing the truth table for implication and the logical operation NAND.

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