We prove that the category of Nachbin’s compact ordered spaces and order-preserving continuous maps between them is dually equivalent to a variety of algebras, with operations of at most countable arity. Furthermore, we observe that the countable bound on the arity is the best possible: the category of compact ordered spaces is not dually equivalent to any variety of finitary algebras. Indeed, the following stronger results hold: the category of compact ordered spaces is not dually equivalent to (i) any finitely accessible category, (ii) any first-order definable class of structures, and (iii) any class of finitary algebras closed under products and subalgebras. An explicit equational axiomatisation of the dual of the category of compact ordered spaces is obtained; in fact, we provide a finite one, meaning that our description uses only finitely many function symbols and finitely many equational axioms. In preparation for the latter result, we establish a generalisation of a celebrated theorem by Mundici: our result—whose proof is independent of Mundici’s theorem—asserts that the category of unital commutative distributive lattice-ordered monoids is equivalent to the category of what we call MV-monoidal algebras.

Abstract taken directly from the thesis.

E-mail: marco.abbadini.uni@gmail.com

URL: https://air.unimi.it/retrieve/handle/2434/812809/1698986/phd_unimi_R11882.pdf

We prove that a minimal second countable ample groupoid has dynamical comparison if and only if its type semigroup is almost unperforated. Moreover, we investigate to what extent a not necessarily minimal almost finite groupoid has an almost unperforated type semigroup. Finally, we build a bridge between coarse geometry and topological dynamics by characterizing almost finiteness of the coarse groupoid in terms of a new coarsely invariant property for metric spaces, which might be of independent interest in coarse geometry. As a consequence, we are able to construct new examples of almost finite principal groupoids lacking other desirable properties, such as amenability or even a-T-menability. This behaviour is in stark contrast to the case of principal transformation groupoids associated to group actions.

It is a classic result in modal logic, often referred to as Jónsson-Tarski duality, that the category of modal algebras is dually equivalent to the category of descriptive frames. The latter are Kripke frames equipped with a Stone topology such that the binary relation is continuous. This duality generalizes the celebrated Stone duality for boolean algebras. Our goal is to generalize descriptive frames so that the topology is an arbitrary compact Hausdorff topology. For this, instead of working with the boolean algebra of clopen subsets of a Stone space, we work with the ring of continuous real-valued functions on a compact Hausdorff space. The main novelty is to define a modal operator on such a ring utilizing a continuous relation on a compact Hausdorff space.

Our starting point is the well-known Gelfand duality between the category ${\sf KHaus}$ of compact Hausdorff spaces and the category $\boldsymbol {\mathit {uba}\ell }$ of uniformly complete bounded archimedean $\ell $-algebras. We endow a bounded archimedean $\ell $-algebra with a modal operator, which results in the category $\boldsymbol {\mathit {mba}\ell }$ of modal bounded archimedean $\ell $-algebras. Our main result establishes a dual adjunction between $\boldsymbol {\mathit {mba}\ell }$ and the category ${\sf KHF}$ of what we call compact Hausdorff frames; that is, Kripke frames equipped with a compact Hausdorff topology such that the binary relation is continuous. This dual adjunction restricts to a dual equivalence between ${\sf KHF}$ and the reflective subcategory $\boldsymbol {\mathit {muba}\ell }$ of $\boldsymbol {\mathit {mba}\ell }$ consisting of uniformly complete objects of $\boldsymbol {\mathit {mba}\ell }$. This generalizes both Gelfand duality and Jónsson-Tarski duality.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the notion of a Grzegorczyk point introduced in [19] (and thoroughly investigated in [3, 14, 16, 18]) to the standard notions of a filter in Boolean algebras and round filter in Boolean contact algebras. In particular, we compare Grzegorczyk points to filters and ultrafilters of atomic and atomless algebras. We also prove how a certain extra axiom influences topological spaces for Grzegorczyk contact algebras. Last but not least, we do not refrain from a philosophical interpretation of the results from the paper.

In 2001, the algebraico-tree-theoretic simplicity hierarchical structure of J. H. Conway’s ordered field ${\mathbf {No}}$ of surreal numbers was brought to the fore by the first author and employed to provide necessary and sufficient conditions for an ordered field (ordered $K$-vector space) to be isomorphic to an initial subfield ($K$-subspace) of ${\mathbf {No}}$, i.e. a subfield ($K$-subspace) of ${\mathbf {No}}$ that is an initial subtree of ${\mathbf {No}}$. In this sequel, analogous results are established for ordered exponential fields, making use of a slight generalization of Schmeling’s conception of a transseries field. It is further shown that a wide range of ordered exponential fields are isomorphic to initial exponential subfields of $({\mathbf {No}}, \exp )$. These include all models of $T({\mathbb R}_W, e^x)$, where ${\mathbb R}_W$ is the reals expanded by a convergent Weierstrass system W. Of these, those we call trigonometric-exponential fields are given particular attention. It is shown that the exponential functions on the initial trigonometric-exponential subfields of ${\mathbf {No}}$, which includes ${\mathbf {No}}$ itself, extend to canonical exponential functions on their surcomplex counterparts. The image of the canonical map of the ordered exponential field ${\mathbb T}^{LE}$ of logarithmic-exponential transseries into ${\mathbf {No}}$ is shown to be initial, as are the ordered exponential fields ${\mathbb R}((\omega ))^{EL}$ and ${\mathbb R}\langle \langle \omega \rangle \rangle $.

A structure ${\mathbb Y}$ of a relational language L is called almost chainable iff there are a finite set $F \subset Y$ and a linear order $\,<$ on the set $Y\setminus F$ such that for each partial automorphism $\varphi $ (i.e., local automorphism, in Fraïssé’s terminology) of the linear order $\langle Y\setminus F, <\rangle $ the mapping $\mathop {\mathrm {id}}\nolimits _F \cup \varphi $ is a partial automorphism of ${\mathbb Y}$. By theorems of Fraïssé and Pouzet, an infinite structure ${\mathbb Y}$ is almost chainable iff the profile of ${\mathbb Y}$ is bounded; namely, iff there is a positive integer m such that ${\mathbb Y}$ has $\leq m$ non-isomorphic substructures of size n, for each positive integer n. A complete first order L-theory ${\mathcal T}$ having infinite models is called almost chainable iff all models of ${\mathcal T}$ are almost chainable and it is shown that the last condition is equivalent to the existence of one countable almost chainable model of ${\mathcal T}$. In addition, it is proved that an almost chainable theory has either one or continuum many non-isomorphic countable models and, thus, the Vaught conjecture is confirmed for almost chainable theories.

We present infinite analogues of our splinter lemma for constructing nested sets of separations. From these we derive several tree-of-tangles-type theorems for infinite graphs and infinite abstract separation systems.

All known structural extensions of the substructural logic $\textbf{FL}_{\textbf{e}}$, the Full Lambek calculus with exchange/commutativity (corresponding to subvarieties of commutative residuated lattices axiomatized by $\{\vee , \cdot , 1\}$-equations), have decidable theoremhood; in particular all the ones defined by knotted axioms enjoy strong decidability properties (such as the finite embeddability property). We provide infinitely many such extensions that have undecidable theoremhood, by encoding machines with undecidable halting problem. An even bigger class of extensions is shown to have undecidable deducibility problem (the corresponding varieties of residuated lattices have undecidable word problem); actually with very few exceptions, such as the knotted axioms and the other prespinal axioms, we prove that undecidability is ubiquitous. Known undecidability results for non-commutative extensions use an encoding that fails in the presence of commutativity, so and-branching counter machines are employed. Even these machines provide encodings that fail to capture proper extensions of commutativity, therefore we introduce a new variant that works on an exponential scale. The correctness of the encoding is established by employing the theory of residuated frames.

We study the first-order theories of some natural and important classes of coloured trees, including the four classes of trees whose paths have the order type respectively of the natural numbers, the integers, the rationals, and the reals. We develop a technique for approximating a tree as a suitably coloured linear order. We then present the first-order theories of certain classes of coloured linear orders and use them, along with the approximating technique, to establish complete axiomatisations of the four classes of trees mentioned above.

For any given subgroup H of a finite group G, the Quillen poset ${\mathcal {A}}_p(G)$ of nontrivial elementary abelian p-subgroups is obtained from ${\mathcal {A}}_p(H)$ by attaching elements via their centralisers in H. We exploit this idea to study Quillen’s conjecture, which asserts that if ${\mathcal {A}}_p(G)$ is contractible then G has a nontrivial normal p-subgroup. We prove that the original conjecture is equivalent to the ${{\mathbb {Z}}}$-acyclic version of the conjecture (obtained by replacing ‘contractible’ by ‘${{\mathbb {Z}}}$-acyclic’). We also work with the ${\mathbb {Q}}$-acyclic (strong) version of the conjecture, reducing its study to extensions of direct products of simple groups of p-rank at least $2$. This allows us to extend results of Aschbacher and Smith and to establish the strong conjecture for groups of p-rank at most $4$.

We prove that the annihilating-ideal graph of a commutative semigroup with unity is, in general, not weakly perfect. This settles the conjecture of DeMeyer and Schneider [‘The annihilating-ideal graph of commutative semigroups’, J. Algebra 469 (2017), 402–420]. Further, we prove that the zero-divisor graphs of semigroups with respect to semiprime ideals are weakly perfect. This enables us to produce a large class of examples of weakly perfect zero-divisor graphs from a fixed semigroup by choosing different semiprime ideals.

We investigate the Tukey order in the class of $F_{\sigma }$ ideals of subsets of $\omega $. We show that no nontrivial $F_{\sigma }$ ideal is Tukey below a $G_{\delta }$ ideal of compact sets. We introduce the notions of flat ideals and gradually flat ideals. We prove a dichotomy theorem for flat ideals isolating gradual flatness as the side of the dichotomy that is structurally good. We give diverse characterizations of gradual flatness among flat ideals using Tukey reductions and games. For example, we show that gradually flat ideals are precisely those flat ideals that are Tukey below the ideal of density zero sets.

Let G be a group and A a set equipped with a collection of finitary operations. We study cellular automata $$\tau :{A^G} \to {A^G}$$ that preserve the operations AG of induced componentwise from the operations of A. We show τ that is an endomorphism of AG if and only if its local function is a homomorphism. When A is entropic (i.e. all finitary operations are homomorphisms), we establish that the set EndCA(G;A), consisting of all such endomorphic cellular automata, is isomorphic to the direct limit of Hom(AS, A), where S runs among all finite subsets of G. In particular, when A is an R-module, we show that EndCA(G;A) is isomorphic to the group algebra $${\rm{End}}(A)[G]$$. Moreover, when A is a finite Boolean algebra, we establish that the number of endomorphic cellular automata over AG admitting a memory set S is precisely $${(k|S|)^k}$$, where k is the number of atoms of A.

We present a Zermelo–Fraenkel ($\textbf {ZF}$) consistency result regarding bi-orderability of groups. A classical consequence of the ultrafilter lemma is that a group is bi-orderable if and only if it is locally bi-orderable. We show that there exists a model of $\textbf {ZF}$ plus dependent choice in which there is a group which is locally free (ergo locally bi-orderable) and not bi-orderable, and the group can be given a total order. The model also includes a torsion-free abelian group which is not bi-orderable but can be given a total order.

We determine the reflexivity index of some closed set lattices by constructing maps relative to irrational rotations. For example, various nests of closed balls and some topological spaces, such as even-dimensional spheres and a wedge of two circles, have reflexivity index 2. We also show that a connected double of spheres has reflexivity index at most 2.

We investigate the structure of ultrafilters on Boolean algebras in the framework of Tukey reducibility. In particular, this paper provides several techniques to construct ultrafilters which are not Tukey maximal. Furthermore, we connect this analysis with a cardinal invariant of Boolean algebras, the ultrafilter number, and prove consistency results concerning its possible values on Cohen and random algebras.

In this work we investigate the Weihrauch degree of the problem Decreasing Sequence ($\mathsf {DS}$) of finding an infinite descending sequence through a given ill-founded linear order, which is shared by the problem Bad Sequence ($\mathsf {BS}$) of finding a bad sequence through a given non-well quasi-order. We show that $\mathsf {DS}$, despite being hard to solve (it has computable inputs with no hyperarithmetic solution), is rather weak in terms of uniform computational strength. To make the latter precise, we introduce the notion of the deterministic part of a Weihrauch degree. We then generalize $\mathsf {DS}$ and $\mathsf {BS}$ by considering $\boldsymbol {\Gamma }$-presented orders, where $\boldsymbol {\Gamma }$ is a Borel pointclass or $\boldsymbol {\Delta }^1_1$, $\boldsymbol {\Sigma }^1_1$, $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^1_1$. We study the obtained $\mathsf {DS}$-hierarchy and $\mathsf {BS}$-hierarchy of problems in comparison with the (effective) Baire hierarchy and show that they do not collapse at any finite level.

We show that the countable universal homogeneous meet-tree has a generic automorphism, but it does not have a generic pair of automorphisms.

We prove that the Weihrauch lattice can be transformed into a Brouwer algebra by the consecutive application of two closure operators in the appropriate order: first completion and then parallelization. The closure operator of completion is a new closure operator that we introduce. It transforms any problem into a total problem on the completion of the respective types, where we allow any value outside of the original domain of the problem. This closure operator is of interest by itself, as it generates a total version of Weihrauch reducibility that is defined like the usual version of Weihrauch reducibility, but in terms of total realizers. From a logical perspective completion can be seen as a way to make problems independent of their premises. Alongside with the completion operator and total Weihrauch reducibility we need to study precomplete representations that are required to describe these concepts. In order to show that the parallelized total Weihrauch lattice forms a Brouwer algebra, we introduce a new multiplicative version of an implication. While the parallelized total Weihrauch lattice forms a Brouwer algebra with this implication, the total Weihrauch lattice fails to be a model of intuitionistic linear logic in two different ways. In order to pinpoint the algebraic reasons for this failure, we introduce the concept of a Weihrauch algebra that allows us to formulate the failure in precise and neat terms. Finally, we show that the Medvedev Brouwer algebra can be embedded into our Brouwer algebra, which also implies that the theory of our Brouwer algebra is Jankov logic.

Let $\mathcal M=(M,<,\ldots)$ be a linearly ordered first-order structure and T its complete theory. We investigate conditions for T that could guarantee that $\mathcal M$ is not much more complex than some colored orders (linear orders with added unary predicates). Motivated by Rubin’s work [5], we label three conditions expressing properties of types of T and/or automorphisms of models of T. We prove several results which indicate the “geometric” simplicity of definable sets in models of theories satisfying these conditions. For example, we prove that the strongest condition characterizes, up to definitional equivalence (inter-definability), theories of colored orders expanded by equivalence relations with convex classes.