Fundamental results for pointfree convex geometry (Q636383)

The starting point of this paper is the notion of region--based pointfree space. Indeed, there are several ways to realize this notion in a mathematical form. Local theory, that studies the lattice structure of open sets in an algebraic way, can be considered as an algebraic theory of topological structures that is primarily based on that of a region. Starting from local theory, in this paper the author proposes the concept of ``pointfree convex geometry'', that is an algebraic theory of convex structures which does not presuppose the notion of a point and is essentially based on that of a region. Pointfree geometry investigates the lattice structure of convex sets in an algebraic way: a ``space'' in pointfree convex geometry is a meet--complete poset with joins of chains that distribute over arbitrary meets, which is called a convexity algebra. There are two ways to recover points: a point can be a chain--prime meet--complete filter, or a maximal meet--complete filter. These two points of view entail two kinds of categorical duality between some convexity algebras and some convexity spaces. The main results of the paper can be summarized as follows: Theorem 3.9 shows that there is a dual adjunction between the category of convexity algebras and homomorphisms (CA) and the category of convexity spaces and convexity--preserving maps (CS); Theorem 4.8 shows that there is a dual equivalence between the category of spatial convexity algebras and homomorphisms (SpCA) and the category of sober convexity spaces and convexity--preserving maps (SobCS); Theorem 5.18 shows that there is a dual equivalence between the category of \(m\)--spatial convexity algebras and \(m\)--homomorphisms (mSpCS) and the category of \(m\)--sober convexity spaces and convexity preserving maps (mSobCS), where the convexity--preserving maps between \(m\)--sober convexity spaces correspond to \(m\)--homomorphisms, not homomorphisms.