Central extensions in universal algebra: A unification of three notions (Q1866833)

An extension of an object \(B\) in a variety \(\mathcal C\) is a pair \((A,f)\) where \(f:A\rightarrow B\) is a surjective homomorphism in \(\mathcal C\). The extension \((A,f)\) is central if there exists a surjective homomorphism \(p:E\rightarrow B\) such that for \(E\times A\) and \(\pi _2:E\times A\rightarrow A\), \(\pi _1:E\times A\rightarrow A\) there holds \(\pi _1\cdot p=\pi _2 \cdot f\). Main result: Theorem. (a) If \(\mathcal C\) is a congruence-modular variety and \({\mathcal W}\) is a subvariety consisting of the Abelian algebras, then each central extension \((A,f)\) has \(\operatorname {Ker} f\) contained in the centre of \(A\). (b) If \(\mathcal C\) is a variety of \(\Omega \)-groups and \({\mathcal W}\) is a subvariety of the Abelian algebras then the central extensions are just those surjective homomorphism \(f:A\rightarrow B\) with \(\operatorname {Ker} f\) contained in the centre of \(A\).