On the weak automorphisms of certain algebras (Q583254)

Let \({\mathbb{A}}\) be an algebra and let \(\pi\) be a permutation of A. Then \(\pi\) is an automorphism of \({\mathbb{A}}\) iff \(t_{\pi}=\pi \circ t\circ \pi^{-n}=t\) holds for any n-ary term operation \(t=t_{{\mathbb{A}}}\). The permutation \(\pi\) is called a weak automorphism in case that for every term t the operation \(t_{\pi}\) is also given by a term. The weak automorphisms form a group WAUT(\({\mathbb{A}})\) under composition which contains the group AUT(\({\mathbb{A}})\) of automorphisms of \({\mathbb{A}}\) as a normal subgroup. The factor group WAUT(\({\mathbb{A}})/AUT({\mathbb{A}})\) is called the clone symmetry group CS(\({\mathbb{A}})\) and its index cs(\({\mathbb{A}})\) the clone symmetry index of \({\mathbb{A}}\). For example, if \({\mathbb{F}}_ p\) is the finite field of p elements, then every permutation is a weak automorphism while the identity is the only automorphism. Hence, \(cs({\mathbb{F}}_ p)=p!\). Cases of algebras where \(cs({\mathbb{A}})=1\) have been studied before by M. E. Adams and D. M. Clark, but also classes of algebras where this index becomes arbitrarily large are known. The author investigates cs for the special cases of modules over the additive group P of p-adic numbers and obtains as a typical result that the cs are unbounded for the finite P-algebras as well as for the finite modules over \({\mathbb{Z}}[P]\).