Three remarks on the modular commutator (Q1208065)

The paper investigates three independent questions in the theory of congruence modular varieties. First a problem of Ralph McKenzie is solved by proving that in a finitely directly representable variety every directly indecomposable algebra must be finite. Next it is shown that there is no local proof of the fundamental theorem of Abelian algebras, nor of H. P. Gumm's permutability results. This part may also be useful for the investigation of non-modular Abelian algebras. Finally a Gumm- type characterization of the relation \([\alpha,\beta]=0\) is given, where \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are two not necessarily comparable congruences. In doing this, a four-variable version of the difference term is introduced in every modular variety.