Duality for some categories of coalgebras. (Q1771881)

The paper is a continuation of a study of equational logic for certain kinds of coalgebra begun by the author in [\textit{R. Goldblatt}, Theor. Comput. Sci. 266, 853--886 (2001; Zbl 0989.68099)]. These structures include automata and other state-transition systems and also encompass simple constructions in object-oriented programming languages. A contravariant duality between the category of coalgebras of a certain kind and a category of Boolean algebra with operators is constructed, including modal operators corresponding to state transitions in coalgebras, and distinguished elements abstracting the sets of states defined by observable equations. The duality is used to give a new proof that a class of coalgebras is definable by Boolean combinations of observable equations if it is closed under disjoint unions, domains and images of coalgebraic morphisms, and ultrafilter enlargements. The proof reduces the problem to a direct application of Birkhoff's variety theorem characterizing equational classes of algebras.