Epic substructures and primitive positive functions

Abstract: For

m a t h b f A l e q m a t h b f B

first order structures in a class

m a t h c a l K

, say that

m a t h b f A

is an epic substructure of

m a t h b f B

in

m a t h c a l K

if for every

m a t h b f C i n m a t h c a l K

and all homomorphisms

g, g^{p r i m e} : m a t h b f B i g h t a r r o w m a t h b f C

, if

g

and

g^{'}

agree on

A

, then

g = g^{'}

. We prove that

m a t h b f A

is an epic substructure of

m a t h b f B

in a class

m a t h c a l K

closed under ultraproducts if and only if

A

generates

m a t h b f B

via operations definable in

m a t h c a l K

with primitive positive formulas. Applying this result we show that a quasivariety of algebras

m a t h c a l Q

with an

n

-ary near-unanimity term has surjective epimorphisms if and only if

m a t h b b {S P}_{n} m a t h b b P_{u} (m a t h c a l Q_{R S I})

has surjective epimorphisms. It follows that if

m a t h c a l F

is a finite set of finite algebras with a common near-unanimity term, then it is decidable whether the (quasi)variety generated by

m a t h c a l F

has surjective epimorphisms.

This page was built for publication: Epic substructures and primitive positive functions