Vaught measures and their applications in lattice theory (Q1084423)

M\(=(M;+,0)\) is called a refinement monoid if it is a commutative monoid such that \(x+y=0\) implies \(x=y=0\), and whenever \(\sum x_ i=\sum y_ j\), then there are elements \(z_{ij}\) with \(x_ i=\sum_{j}z_{ij}\), \(y_ j=\sum_{i}z_{ij}\). A mapping \(\mu\) : \(A\to M\) of a Boolean algebra A is an (M-valued) measure if \(\mu (0)=0\) and \(\mu\) is additive (i.e. \(\mu (a+b)=\mu (a)+\mu (b)\) for disjoint a,b). If \(\mu (a)=0\) implies \(a=0\) then \(\mu\) is called positive. A Vaught measure is a positive measure \(\mu\) which is splitting (i.e. if \(\mu (a)=x_ 1+x_ 2\) then there are disjoint \(a_ 1,a_ 2\) with \(a=a_ 1+a_ 2\), \(\mu (a_ i)=x_ i)\). (A,\(\mu)\) is a measure algebra. The first section deals with the following question: given an element \(x\in M\), does there exist a measure algebra (A,\(\mu)\) such that \(\mu (1)=x\). In this case x is called measurable. M is measurable if every element is measurable. Let (A,\(\mu)\) and (B,\(\pi)\) be M-valued measure algebras, \(h: A\to B\) is an embedding (or (B,\(\pi)\) is an extension of (A,\(\mu)\)) if h is a Boolean algebra embedding and \(\mu =\pi h\). The starting point of the investigations is that every finite measure algebra satisfies the following amalgamation property: If (A,\(\mu)\), \((B_ 0,\mu_ 0)\), \((B_ 1,\mu_ 1)\) are finite measure algebras and \(h_ i: A\to B_ i\) are embeddings, then there are a finite measure algebra (C,\(\pi)\) and embeddings \(f_ i: B_ i\to C\) such that \(f_ 0h_ 0=f_ 1h_ 1.\) The author generalizes this basic amalgamation property and he uses these to construct Vaught measures. M has the measure extension property if for every positive measure \(\mu\) : \(A\to M\) there exists an extension (B,\(\pi)\) such that \(\pi\) is a Vaught measure. It is proved that M has this property iff M satisfies a special amalgamation property. This implies that the following structures have the measure extension property: distributive lattices (which are in respect the join operation refinement monoids), commutative groups, positive domains of ordered fields (under addition). It is proved that every positive cone of a lattice-ordered group is measurable. A distributive semilattice is called primely generated if each element is a finite supremum of prime (irreducible) elements. Every primely generated distributive semilattice is measurable and it has the measure extension property iff it is a lattice. In the second section the author applies these results to Heyting algebras and Stone spaces. He obtains the following result: Every completely distributive algebraic lattice can be embedded in the ideal lattice of some generalized Boolean lattice by a mapping which preserves relative pseudo-complements and arbitrary suprema and infima. In the last section we find the applications to the characterization problem of congruence lattices of lattices. A poset is called locally countable if every principal ideal of it is countable. It is proved that every distributive algebraic lattice with the property that the poset of all compact elements is locally countable is representable as the congruence lattice of some lattice. Another proof is given for Dilworth's Theorem which states that every completely distributive algebraic lattice is the congruence lattice of some lattice.