Towards a theory of noncommutative lattices (Q1085188)

A semigroup (S,\(\wedge)\) is called a band if it satisfies the idempotent law. Extending the concept of a band to an algebraic system with two operations, the author calls (S,\(\wedge,\vee)\) a skew lattice if both ''\(\vee ''\) and ''\(\wedge ''\) satisfy the idempotent law and the two operations are related by the duality equivalences (i.e. \(x\vee y=x\) iff \(x\wedge y=y\), and \(x\vee y=y\) iff \(x\wedge y=x)\). A skew lattice structure can be imposed on the set product \(L\times R\) by setting \((a,b)\wedge (a',b')=(a,b')\) and \((a,b)\vee (a',b')=(a',b)\). Any skew lattice isomorphic to such a structure is called rectangular. In this paper, the author announces that every skew lattice may be loosely viewed as a lattice of rectangular skew lattices and the study of skew lattices can be largely reduced to the study of right regular skew lattices. This paper is a summary of research announced by the author at the conference on Universal Algebra and Lattice Theory held in Bethesda, Maryland from July 30 to August 2, 1986.