Free products in the category of Abelian \(\ell\)-groups with strong unit (Q1111584)

This paper is concerned with free products in the category A of abelian \(\ell\)-groups with strong unit and unit preserving \(\ell\)-homomorphisms. In an earlier paper [J. Funct. Anal. 65, 15-63 (1986; Zbl 0597.46059)] the author classified AF \(C^*\)-algebras in terms of countable abelian \(\ell\)-groups with strong unit, using the AF \(C^*\)-algebraic analogue of the Weinberg free embedding and the \(K_ 0\)-functor of K-theory. Here the author gives a detailed description of the structure of free products using the freeness properties of the \(\ell\)-group \(M_{\kappa}\) of McNaughton functions over the Tychonoff cube. Many interesting results are given including a large sample of formulas for free products.