Varieties having Boolean factor congruences (Q1813837)

In the paper, the varieties having Boolean factor congruences (BFC) or, equivalently, the strict refinement property are studied aiming at finding a Mal'cev condition for BFC. The main results are as follows: 1. A sufficient condition for BFC, denoted by (*), is given in terms of a first-order definable 4-ary relation. 2. Every variety known to have BFC (e.g., those having the Fraser-Horn-Hu property) satisfies (*). 3. Every centerless variety has BFC, but not vice versa. 4. For congruence-modular varieties and Jónsson-Tarski varieties, (*) is equivalent to BFC and also to the absence of nontrivial abelian algebras.