Tensor products and entropic varieties (Q1083467)

Multilinear maps for modules over rings are generalized to n-morphisms for universal algebras, thereby generalizing the notion of tensor products to universal algebras. In the sequel K will denote a variety of universal algebras. The free algebra of K generated by x will be denoted by F. The free algebra F behaves like the identity for tensor product iff every unary term function is a homomorphism. Theorem 1: The following conditions are equivalent: 1) There is an isomorphism of \(F\otimes F\) onto F mapping \(x\otimes x\) onto x, 2) All unary terms commute, 3) A binary operation * can be defined on F so that \(<F:*,x>\) is a commutative monoid and * distributes over all the operations of K. This generalizes the fact that the free abelian group of rank 1 has a natural commutative ring structure. The variety K is called entropic if for all m-ary operations f and all n- ary operations g of K, the identity \[ f(g(x_{11},...,x_{1n}),...,g(x_{m1},...,x_{mn}))=g(f(x_{11},..., x_{m1}),...,f(x_{1n},...,x_{mn})) \] holds in K. Theorem 2. The following are equivalent: 1) K is entropic, 2) The set of all homomorphisms of A into B is a subalgebra of \(B^ A\) for all A,B\(\in K\), 3) Unary terms commute in K and for all \(B\in K\) the functor \(X\to X\otimes B\) preserves finite coproducts. Thus \(<K;\otimes,F>\) is a symmetric monoidal category with unity. If M, N are semigroups in K, then an associative * can be defined on \(M\times N\) so that \((a\otimes b)*(c\otimes d)=(a*c)\otimes (b*d)\). The authors study coproducts in entropic varieties satisfying \(x*x=x\) and congruences on tensor products. The results are applied to tensor products of join-semilattices.