A generalization of de Vries duality to closed relations between compact Hausdorff spaces (Q6113249)

In his well-known paper published in 1936, Stone established the famous Stone duality which states that the category \(\mathsf{Stone}\) of Stone spaces (zero-dimensional compact Hausdorff spaces) and continuous maps is dually equivalent to the category \(\mathsf{BA}\) of boolean algebras and boolean homomorphisms. In [\textit{H. de Vries}, Compact spaces and compactifications. An algebraic approach. University of Amsterdam (PhD thesis) (1962)], de Vries generalized Stone duality to a duality for the category \(\mathsf{KHaus}\) of compact Hausdorff spaces and continuous maps. The objects of the dual category \(\mathsf{DeV}\) are complete boolean algebras equipped with a proximity relation, known as de Vries algebras. The morphisms of \(\mathsf{DeV}\) are functions satisfying certain conditions. A major drawback of \(\mathsf{DeV}\) is that composition of morphisms is not the usual function composition. In this paper, the authors propose an alternative approach to de Vries duality, where morphisms between de Vries algebras become certain relations and composition is the usual relation composition. In this way, Stone duality generalizes to an equivalence between the categories \(\mathsf{Stone}^{\mathrm{R}}\) of Stone spaces and closed relations and \(\mathsf{BA}^{\mathrm{S}}\) of boolean algebras and subordination relations. This equivalence is in fact an equivalence of allegories, hence self-dual categories. Splitting equivalences in \(\mathsf{Stone}^{\mathrm{R}}\) yields a category that is equivalent to the category \(\mathsf{KHaus}^{\mathrm{R}}\) of compact Hausdorff spaces and closed relations. Similarly, splitting equivalences in \(\mathsf{BA}^{\mathrm{S}}\) yields a category that is equivalent to the category \(\mathsf{DeV}^{\mathrm{S}}\) of de Vries algebras and compatible subordination relations. Applying the machinery of allegories then yields the equivalence between \(\mathsf{KHaus}^{\mathrm{R}}\) and \(\mathsf{DeV}^{\mathrm{S}}\), thus resolving a problem recently raised in [\textit{G. Bezhanishvili} et al., Appl. Categ. Struct. 27, No. 6, 663--686 (2019; Zbl 1437.54021)]. The equivalence between \(\mathsf{KHaus}^{\mathrm{R}}\) and \(\mathsf{DeV}^{\mathrm{S}}\) is further restricted to an equivalence between the category \(\mathsf{KHaus}\) of compact Hausdorff spaces and continuous functions and the wide subcategory \(\mathsf{DeV}^{\mathrm{F}}\) of \(\mathsf{DeV}^{\mathrm{S}}\) whose morphisms satisfy additional conditions. This yields an alternative to de Vries duality. One advantage of this approach is that composition of morphisms is the usual relation composition.