Maximal TC-clones, graphs and relations (Q1331966)

If \(A\) is a nonempty set, a set of operations on \(A\) that is closed relatively to composition and contains all the projections is called a clone on \(A\). A clone \(C\) is said to be a TC-clone (Term Condition clone) if all \(n\)-ary operations \(f\) in \(C\) are TC, i.e., for every \(i \in \{0, \dots, n - 1\}\) and \[ x,y,a_ 0, \dots, a_{i - 1}, a_{i + 1}, \dots, a_{n - 1}, b_ 0, \dots, b_{i - 1}, b_{i + 1}, \dots, b_{n - 1} \in A, \] \[ f(a_ 0, \dots, a_{i - 1}, x, a_{i + 1}, \dots, a_{n - 1}) = f(b_ 0, \dots, b_{i - 1}, x, b_{i + 1}, \dots, b_{n - 1}) \] implies \[ f(a_ 0, \dots, a_{i - 1}, y, a_{i + 1}, \dots, a_{n - 1}) = f(b_ 0, \dots, b_{i - 1}, y, b_{i + 1}, \dots, b_{n - 1}). \] \textit{J. Berman} and \textit{R. McKenzie} [Discrete Math. 52, 7-29 (1984; Zbl 0547.08003)] characterized TC-clones on \(A\) in terms of a quaternary relation on \(A\) verifying three conditions. In this paper the authors characterize maximal TC-clones on \(A\) in terms of graphs whose components satisfy some properties defined in the paper, thus extending the Berman-McKenzie results.