Functorial relationships between multirings and the various abstract theories of quadratic forms (Q2082025)

A multigroup is a quadruple \((G,*,r,1)\) where \(G\) is a non-empty set, \(*: G\times G \rightarrow \mathcal{P}(G)\setminus \{\emptyset\}\) and \(r: G\rightarrow G\) are functions, and \(1\) is an element of \(G\) satisfying (1) If \(z\in x* t\), then \(x\in z * r(y)\) and \(y\in r(x) * z\), (2) \(y\in 1* x\) if and only if \(x=y\), (3) with the convention that \(x * (y * z)=\bigcup_{w \in y * z} x* w\) and \((x* y) * z=\bigcup_{t\in x* y} t* z\), we have \(x* (y* z)=(x* y)* z\) for all \(x,y,z \in G\). A multigroup is said to be commutative if \(x*y=y*x\) for all \(x,y\in G\). A multiring is a sextuple \((R,+,\cdot,-1,0,1)\) where \(R\) is a non-empty set, \(+ : R\times R \rightarrow \mathcal{P}(R)\setminus \{\emptyset\}\), \(\cdot: R\times R \rightarrow R\) and \(-:R\rightarrow R\) are functions, and \(0\) and \(1\) are elements in \(R\) satisfying: (1) \((R,+,-,0)\) is a commutative multigroup, (2) \((R,\cdot,1)\) is a commutative monoid, (3) \(a \cdot 0=0\) for all \(a\in R\), and (4) if \(c\in a+b\), then \(c\cdot d\in a\cdot d+b\cdot d\). A multiring is a multifield if every element has a multiplicative inverse. The authors of this paper provide explicit equivalences between categories of abstract quadratic form theories and subcategories of multifields and multirings that may be beneficial to the study of abstract theories of quadratic forms in the future.