Codimension and pseudometric in co-Heyting algebras

Abstract: In this paper we introduce a notion of dimension and codimension for every element of a distributive bounded lattice

L

. These notions prove to have a good behavior when

L

is a co-Heyting algebra. In this case the codimension gives rise to a pseudometric on

L

which satisfies the ultrametric triangle inequality. We prove that the Hausdorff completion of

L

with respect to this pseudometric is precisely the projective limit of all its finite dimensional quotients. This completion has some familiar metric properties, such as the convergence of every monotonic sequence in a compact subset. It coincides with the profinite completion of

L

if and only if it is compact or equivalently if every finite dimensional quotient of

L

is finite. In this case we say that

L

is precompact. If

L

is precompact and Hausdorff, it inherits many of the remarkable properties of its completion, specially those regarding the join/meet irreducible elements. Since every finitely presented co-Heyting algebra is precompact Hausdorff, all the results we prove on the algebraic structure of the latter apply in particular to the former. As an application, we obtain the existence for every positive integers

n, d

of a term

t_{n, d}

such that in every co-Heyting algebra generated by an

n

-tuple

a

,

t_{n, d} (a)

is precisely the maximal element of codimension

d

.

Review text

In this paper the authors introduce the notions of dimension and codimension for every element of a bounded distributive lattice \(L\) (by copying analogous definitions in algebraic geometry) and, at the same time, the notions of rank and corank for the elements of \(L\). When the dual of \(L\) (that is, the same lattice with the reverse order) is a Heyting algebras, they prove that the rank and dimension coincide, as well as the finite corank and the finite codimension. Since all the results of this paper require the basic properties that derive from this coincidence, the authors restrict themselves to this class, known as the the variety of co-Heyting algebras. In this case, the codimension gives rise to a pseudometric \(\delta_{L}\) on \(L\) which satisfies the ultrametric triangle inequalitiy. The topology determined by this pseudometric is called the codimetric topology. It follows that \(L\) is a Hausdorff co-Heyting algebra (that is, its codimetric topology is Hausdorff or, equivalently, \(\delta_{L}\) is a metric) if and only if every non-zero element of \({L}\) has finite codimension. By elementary use of Kripke models and the finite model property of intuitionistic propositional calculus, the authors check that the filtration by finite codimensions has several nice properties in any finitely generated co-Heyting algebra. Many algebraic properties for finitely presented co-Heyting algebras generalize to precompact Hausdorff co-Heyting algebras. Here, it is proved, in particular, that \(L\) and its completion have the same join-irreducible elements, that all of them are completely join-irreducible, and that every element \(a\in L\) is the complete join of its join-irreducible components (the maximal join-irreducible elements smaller than \(a\)). Similar results for meet-irreducible elements are proved (but not completely identical). A characterization of meet-irreducible elements which are not completely meet-irreducible is also given. Finally, the authors prove that the Hausdorff completion of every co-Heyting algebra \(L\) is also its pro-finite-dimensional completion, that is, the projective limit of all its finite-dimensional quotients. This completion has some nice metric properties, such as the convergence of every monotonic sequence in a compact subset. It coincides with the profinite completion of \(L\) if and only if it is compact or, equivalently, if every finite-dimensional quotient of \(L\) is finite. As a final application, the authors obtain, for every positive integers \(n,d\), the existence of a term \(t_{n,d}\) such that in every co-Heyting algebra generated by an \(n\)-tuple \(a, t_{n,d}(a)\) is precisely the maximal element of codimension \(d\).

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