MV-algebras freely generated by finite Kleene algebras. (Q387625)

The paper addresses two problems concerning two varieties \(V,W\) such that any \(V\)-algebra \(A\) has a reduct \(U(A)\) in \(W\), so \(U\) is a forgetful functor. Call \(F\) the adjoint functor of \(U\). The description problem is the problem of describing the relations between \(F(B)\) and \(B\). The recognition problem is the problem of characterizing the algebras of the form \(F(B)\). In this paper the authors focus on the two problems when \(V\) is the variety of MV algebras, \(W\) is the variety of Kleene algebras, and \(B\) is finite (equivalently, finitely generated). To solve both problems, the starting point is the classical result that an MV algebra \(A\) is finitely presented if and only if, for some rational polyhedron \(P\subseteq [0,1]^n\), \(A\) is the MV algebra of piecewise linear functions on \(P\) with integer coefficients and valued in \([0,1]\). The description problem is solved as follows (Theorem I): the MV-algebra \(F(B)\) freely generated by a finite Kleene algebra \(B\) is the MV-algebra \(M(P)\) of Z-maps on the rational polyhedron \(P\) that is the geometric realization of the weighted nerve \(N(D(B))\) of the Kleene space \(D(B)\) dual to \(B\) (where Kleene spaces are enriched posets in duality with Kleene algebras, and the weighted nerve is a weighted version of the usual nerve of a finite poset, a simplicial complex consisting of the chains of the poset). The recognition problem is solved as follows (Theorem II): an MV-algebra is free over some finite Kleene algebra if and only if it possesses a Kleene basis (where a Kleene basis is a generating set with certain properties).