On subtractive varieties II: General properties (Q1272207)

[For Part I by \textit{A. Ursini} see ibid. 31, No. 2, 204-222 (1994; Zbl 0799.08010).] A variety \({\mathcal V}\) with a nullary operation 0 is subtractive if it is permutable at 0. An ideal of an algebra \(A\) with 0 is a non-void subset \(I\) of \(A\) which is closed under all ideal terms of \(A,\) i.e. for terms satisfying \(p(x_1,\dots ,x_n,0,\dots ,0)=0.\) The authors deal with the commutator of ideals of \(A\in {\mathcal V}\) and they give several characterizations of it. It is shown that in subtractive varieties, an algebra has the ideal extension property iff it has the principal ideal extension property and this concept is related with commutator properties. There follows a characterization of varieties having distributive lattices of ideals. This concept is related with equationally definable principal ideals and with the ideal extension property. Using the ideal commutator, the concept of ideal-Abelian algebra is introduced and it is proven that for a subtractive variety \({\mathcal V},\) \({\mathcal V}\) is ideal-Abelian and ideal determined iff \({\mathcal V}\) is Hamiltonian iff each \(A\in {\mathcal V}\) is affine. The paper is completed by examples showing that some of the implications in the theorems cannot be converted.