Ordered groups as a tensor category (Q1692385)

Remember that a group is called \textit{ordered} if it is endowed with a \textit{total} ordering which is compatible with both left and right multiplication. Ordered groups form a category, denoted by \(\mathfrak{C}\) in the article under review, arrows being (injective) increasing group morphisms. We can also give more structure on orderings of groups by endowing the set \(O(G)\) of orderings on a group \(G\) with a topology, which is nothing but the one given by restricting the product of the discrete topology on \(\{0,1\}^{G\times G}\). It is classical that the free product of ordered groups is orderable. In this article, the author, following the construction of \textit{G. Bergman} [J. Algebra 133, No. 2, 313--339 (1990; Zbl 0666.06012)] (which simplifies the original one by \textit{A. A. Vinogradov} [Mat. Sb., Nov. Ser. 25(67), 163--168 (1949; Zbl 0038.15904)]), shows that one can order a free product of ordered groups in a ``natural'' way, \textit{natural} meaning here that: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[-] it is functorial on \(\mathfrak{C}\), making this category \textit{monoidal} (Theorem 8); \item[-] the function \(O(F)\times O(G)\to O(F*G)\) that it defines is continuous and injective (Theorem 12). \end{itemize}} Let us remind quickly how the construction works (see sections 2 and 3 or Bergman's article for more details): if \(R\) is a ring without zero divisor, the free product of two copies of the multiplicative group \(R^\times\) can be embedded into the matrix group \(GL_2(R[t])\) over polynomials on \(R\) (by using diagonal matrices with coefficients in \(R\), conjugation by the triangular matrices \[ \begin{pmatrix} 1 & t\\ 0 & 1\end{pmatrix}\quad\text{ and }\quad\begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0\\ t & 1\end{pmatrix} \] and a ping-pong argument). If \(G_1\) and \(G_2\) are orderable groups, then \(G_1\times G_2\) is orderable, implying that the integral group ring \(R:=\mathbb{Z}[G_1\times G_2]\) has no zero divisors. The orderings on \(G_1\) and \(G_2\) allow to construct an ordering on the ring \(R\) and then on the matrix ring \(\mathcal{M}_2(R[t])\); the ordering on \(G_1 * G_2\) is given by restriction of this one through the aforementioned group monomorphism. The main results of this article are motivated by considerations on Artin action of braid groups on free groups, which are explained in Section 6. The paper gives also complements for free product of arbitrarily many ordered groups (Section 8) and left-ordered groups (Section 9). Most of the material of this article comes from earlier works, but it is short and well-written, giving an efficient view of the subject of orderability of free products, even for unaware readers.