Relation identities in 3-distributive varieties (Q2007989)

Studying congruence identities satisfied in various classes of algebras is a classical topic in universal algebra. A relation identity is a generalization of a congruence identity in which reflexive admissible relations can appear instead of just congruences. The paper studies relation identities satisfied in congruence distributive varieties. The main result is the following somewhat surprising fact: If a variety of algebras~\(\mathcal V\) satisfies the tolerance identity (or rather inclusion) \(\alpha(\beta\circ\Theta)\subseteq \alpha\beta \circ \alpha\Theta\circ\alpha\beta\) where \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are congruences and \(\Theta\) is a tolerance, then \(\mathcal V\) also satisfies the congruence identity \(\alpha(\beta\circ\gamma)\subseteq \alpha\beta \circ \alpha\gamma\) (i.e., \(\mathcal V\) has a majority term). (Note that if \(\Theta\) is a congruence, then the first identity is equivalent to congruence 3-distributivity.) It is shown that several relation identities which are only slight variations of the tolerance identity above are not sufficient to imply a majority term; one such relation identity is shown to be satisfied in any variety with a 2-Gumm term. Additionally, the author provides several relation identities equivalent to congruence \(n\)-permutability, the conjunction of congruence distributivity and \(n\)-permutability, and the conjunction of congruence modularity and \(n\)-permutability. The paper is concluded with a remark on relation identities in implication algebras.