Bohr compactifications of algebras and structures (Q2014018)

The authors present ``a unifying framework for a range of categorical constructions characterised by universal mapping properties, within the realm of compactifications of discrete structures. Some classic examples fit within this broad picture: the Bohr compactification of an abelian group via Pontryagin duality, the zero-dimensional Bohr compactification of a semilattice, and the Nachbin order-compactification of an ordered set''. Their declared goal is ``to analyse in a uniform manner compactifications in a range of specific categories''. Constructions of this type arise widely in algebra and in topology. In all cases ``the objects constructed are topological structures and the construction is performed by applying the left adjoint to a functor which forgets the topology. Here the categories on which the left adjoint functors act have as objects a suitable class either of algebras or of relational structures''.