On the structure of varieties with equationally definable principal congruences. III (Q1342132)

This is the third part [Part IV is reviewed below] of a series of papers dealing with the structure of varieties with equationally definable principal congruences (EDPC) and the connection with algebraic logic, written by the same authors (\textit{P. Köhler} was a co-author of part two, as well [see Zbl 0512.08002 and Zbl 0558.08001]). According to the authors' definition, a variety \(\mathcal V\) has EDPC iff \(c\equiv d(\Theta(a, b))\) is equivalent to the satisfaction of a finite system of quaternary equations by the elements \(a\), \(b\), \(c\), \(d\). Their starting point in this section is that EDPC implies that the join-semilattices of compact congruences of the members of the variety are Brouwerian. In the second paper they introduced the quaternary deductive term as a generalization of the normal transform [see the reviewer, ibid. 19, 177- 196 (1984; Zbl 0554.08003)]. The normal transform is ``equivalent'' to the (affine) ternary discriminator. This paper is the result of an attempt to improve the situation by generalizing the affine ternary discriminator rather than the normal transform. Let \(d\in A\) be a fixed element of \(A\). It is the discriminating element of the fixed-point ternary discriminator \(p(x, y, z)\) if \(p(a, a, c)= c\) and \(p(a, b, c)= d\) for \(b\neq a\), \(c\in A\). The two notions coincide for congruence- permutable pointed varieties. This yields a ternary deductive term (TD) when the second clause is substituted by: \[ p(x, y, z)= p(x, y,w),\quad\text{whenever}\quad z\equiv w(\Theta(x, z)). \] Heyting algebras are examples for this notion. The authors define hoops (just before Theorem 1.8). The main result of the paper is Theorem 5.4, where the authors characterize the varieties of hoops with normal multiplicative operators that have a commutative, regular TD term. As special cases they get commutative regular TD terms for Boolean algebras, Brouwerian semilattices, Heyting algebras, Wajsberg algebras, interior algebras, and relational algebras. They also obtain a characterization of the varieties of modal algebras and cylindric algebras that have such a term. The proofs use many technical means, but the paper is well written.