Rational equivalence of algebras, its clone generalizations, and clone categoricity. (Q359381)

A \textit{clone} on a set \(A\) is a set \(F\) of finitary functions on \(A\) closed under superposition and containing all projections. If \(\mathcal A\) is an algebra with base set \(A\), then the set \(\mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal A)\) of all term functions of \(\mathcal A\) is a clone on \(A\) (and, clearly, every clone on \(A\) is of this form). Two algebras \(\mathcal A\), \(\mathcal B\) (not necessarily of the same signature) are called \textit{rationally equivalent} if there exists a bijection \(\varphi\) between the base sets \(A\), \(B\) of \(\mathcal A\), \(\mathcal B\) such that \(\{\varphi(f(\varphi^{-1}(x_1),\ldots,\varphi^{-1}(x_{n_f})))\mid f\in\mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal A)\}=\mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal B)\), where \(n_f\) denotes the arity of \(f\). (This concept was introduced in 1958 by A.~I.~Mal'tsev and is also known as ``weakly isomorphic'' or ``cryptoisomorphic''.) In the paper under review, the concept of rational equivalence is modified in such a way, that four other clones on the base set \(A\) of an algebra \(\mathcal A\) are considered. One of them is the clone \(\mathrm{AO}(\mathcal A)\) of all functions commuting with the \textit{inner isomorphisms} of \(\mathcal A\), i.e., with all isomorphisms between subalgebras of \(\mathcal A\). The other three clones (which are defined in a more complicated way and denoted by \(\mathrm{PCT}(\mathcal A)\), \(\mathrm{CT}(\mathcal A)\) and \(\mathrm{IO}(\mathcal A)\)) are in the interval \([\mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal A),\mathrm{AO}(\mathcal A)]\) of the clone lattice. Note that the clone \(\mathrm{AO}(\mathcal A)\) was introduced already in 1971 in order to study quasiprimal algebras, [see \textit{A. F. Pixley}, Math. Ann. 191, 167-180 (1971; Zbl 0203.31201)]. A large part of the paper is a survey of concepts and results of several earlier papers by the author. In particular, the inclusions \(\mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal A)\subseteq\mathrm{PCT}(\mathcal A)\subseteq\mathrm{CT}(\mathcal A)\subseteq\mathrm{AO}(\mathcal A)\) and \(\mathrm{PCT}(\mathcal A)\subseteq\mathrm{IO}(\mathcal A)\subseteq\mathrm{AO}(\mathcal A)\) and, as a consequence, the implications between the corresponding concepts of equivalence are pointed out. As a new result, it is proved that the equality \(\mathrm{CT}(\mathcal A)\cap\mathrm{IO}(\mathcal A)=\mathrm{PCT}(\mathcal A)\) holds and -- by constructing suitable examples -- that all inclusions and implications are proper in general. In the last parts of the paper, so-called \textit{clone categorical algebras} are considered and, again, the new results are mainly given by examples showing that some implications are proper.