Epicompletion in frames with skeletal maps. I: Compact regular frames (Q945025)

A frame homomorphism is called skeletal if it maps dense elements to dense elements. The authors show that in the category of compact regular frames with skeletal maps, the subcategory consisting of extremally disconnected frames coincides with epicomplete objects of the aforementioned category. Call a frame homomorphism \(*\)-dense if no nonzero element is mapped by its right adjoint to zero. Given a compact regular frame \(A\), let \(\varepsilon A\) denote the frame Idl(\(\mathfrak B A\)) of ideals of the Booleanization of \(A\). Let \(\varepsilon_A : A\to\varepsilon A\) be the homomorphism that sends every element to its double pseudocomplement. Then \(\varepsilon_A\) is one-to-one and \(*\)-dense. Thus, as has been done before by, for instance, \textit{B. Banaschewski} in [``Compact regular frames and the Sikorski theorem'', Kyungpook Math. J. 28, No. 1, 1--14 (1988; Zbl 0676.03029)], the authors interpret \(\varepsilon A\) as the frame-theoretic analogue of the familiar absolute of a compact Hausdorff space. The main result of this well-written paper (stated at the beginning of the review) is then obtained by showing that \(\varepsilon\) is the functorial epicompletion in the category of compact regular frames. A reader who prefers frame-theoretic nomenclature that reflects topological antecedence might find the choice of naming objects a little irksome. For instance, pseudocomplements are called polars and extremally disconnected frames are called strongly projectable. This emanates from the authors' origins in the theory of lattice-ordered groups.