The associativity equation revisited (Q1122715)

The authors solve the associativity equation. The main result is given in the following theorem: Let I be a nontrivial real interval and let \(\circ:I\times I\to I\) be a continuous cancellation associative operation. Then there exists a continuous bijection F:I\(\to J\) such that \(x\circ y=F^{-1}(F(x)+F(y)),\) all \(x,y\in I\), where J is a (necessarily unbounded) real interval. Moreover, we may choose F to be order- preserving. In other words, (I,\(\circ)\) is topologically order-isomorphic to \((J,+)\).