Nonassociative geometry and discrete space-time (Q5932521)

This paper starts with a very brief review of the authors work on geometric loops [see e.g. the author, Smooth quasigroups and loops, Kluwer, Dordrecht (1999; Zbl 0939.20064)], which results in a reinterpretation of a manifold \(M\) with an affine connection as a ``linear geodiodular structure''. The latter is a purely algebraic structure (roughly speaking two local loops and some kind of scalar multiplication for each point of \(M\)) and can be defined even if \(M\) is not a manifold. This observation is used by the author to define geometric concepts like geodesics and parallel transport in terms of geodiodular structures on finite sets. The resulting theory is then interpreted as a discrete version of differential geometry. The present paper represents only a very brief sketch of this proposal and it does not contain any ideas for physical applications.