Intrinsic topologies on semilattices of finite breadth (Q801945)

The authors compare various topologies defined on a meet semilattice of finite breadth, such as the Zariski and Scott topologies, the interval and ideal topologies. The latter they call the Frink topology. In the Zariski topology a subbase for the closed sets consists of the sets where two semilattice polynomials such as a,x, or \(a\wedge x\) agree. They also consider the one-sided or upper versions of these topologies. In the Scott topology, which is an upper topology, a set U is open if for every directed set D we have sup \(D\in U\) only if \(D\cap U\) is non-empty. On a cube the four upper topologies agree. In general all four are distinct. On \(2^ N\) the first three upper topologies agree but the upper ideal topology is finer. In the plane the upper Zariski, Scott and ideal topologies agree, but the upper interval topology is coarser. In general the upper interval topology is coarser than the other three, and the upper Zariski topology is contained in the upper ideal topology. They also define something called the dual topology, which is contained in the Zariski topology. A complete distributive lattice is compact in the ideal topology only if it has locally finite breadth and is completely distributive, and only if each element is a meet of finitely many prime elements, and a join of finitely many coprime elements.