Indecomposability of free algebras in some subvarieties of residuated lattices and their bounded subreducts (Q422484)

A residuated lattice is an algebra \({\mathbf A}=\langle A,\wedge,\vee,\cdot,\rightarrow,0,1\rangle\) of type \((2,2,2,2,0,0)\) such that \(\langle A,\wedge,\vee,0,1\rangle\) is a bounded lattice with least element \(0\) and greatest element \(1\), \(\langle A,\cdot,1\rangle\) is a commutative monoid and for all \(a,b,c\in A\) the so-called residuation condition holds: \(a\cdot b\leq c\) if and only if \(a\leq b\rightarrow c\). This residuation condition can be replaced by two equations, and therefore residuated lattices form a variety, denoted by \(\mathbb{RL}\) (it is the algebraic counterpart of the full Lambek logic without contraction). The present paper studies free algebras in the variety \(\mathbb{RL}\) and in some of its subvarieties, in particular in the variety \(\mathbb H\) of Heyting algebras (satisfying \(x\cdot y=x\wedge y\)) and the variety \(\mathbb{IRL}\) of involutive residuated lattices (satisfying \((x\rightarrow0)\rightarrow0=x\)). The paper contains six sections. Section~1 is the introduction; in Section~2 some basic results about residuated lattices (and their implicative filters) are collected; in Section~3 some well-known facts about complemented elements in residuated lattices (and their relation to decomposability) are reviewed. The two latter sections enable also readers who are not so familiar with residuated lattices to understand the next Sections~4 and 5, the core of the article, which deal with indecomposability of free algebras. In particular, Section~4 proves the following main result: The varieties \(\mathbb{RL}\), \(\mathbb{IRL}\) and \(\mathbb H\) have all their free algebras directly indecomposable. (It is well known that this result also holds for the variety of MV-algebras.) In the last Section~6, results of Sections~4 and 5 are extended to the corresponding \(\langle\rightarrow,0,1\rangle\)-reducts. Finally, let us note that the paper is written quite clearly and in a very good style and contains a representative list of 19 references.