OPC lattices and congruence heredity (Q2476163)

A lattice \(\mathbf{L}\) is order polynomially complete (OPC) if every order-preserving operation on \(\mathbf{L}\) is a polynomial of \(\mathbf{L}\). The fact that every finite lattice in the variety generated by \(\mathbf{M}_{3}\) is isomorphic to the congruence lattice of a finite algebra led Hegedűs and Pálfy to define the notions of congruence heredity and congruence power-heredity. The congruence lattice \(\mathbf{L}\) of a finite algebra \(\mathbf{A}\) is hereditary if every 0-1 sublattice of \(\mathbf{L}\) is the congruence lattice of an algebra with the same universe as \(\mathbf{A}\). \(\mathbf{L}\) is power-hereditary if every 0-1 sublattice of \(\mathbf{L}^{n}\) is the congruence lattice of an algebra with the same universe as \(\mathbf{A}^{n}\). \(\mathbf{A}\) is (power-)hereditary if Con\(\mathbf{A}\) is congruence (power-)hereditary. The author proves in this paper that if \(\mathbf{A}\) is a finite algebra in a variety which satisfies a nontrivial idempotent Mal'tsev condition and if Con\(\mathbf{A}\) contains a copy of an OPC lattice other than the two-element lattice, \(\mathbf{M}_{3}\), or Con(\(\mathbf{Z}_{2}^{3})\), then Con\(\mathbf{A}\) cannot be hereditary. In the process of proof, he gives a characterization of congruence (power-)hereditary vector spaces.