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For a variety of finite groups $\mathbf H$, let $\overline{\mathbf H}$ denote the variety of finite semigroups all of whose subgroups lie in $\mathbf H$. We give a characterization of the subsets of a finite semigroup that are pointlike with respect to $\overline{\mathbf H}$. Our characterization is effective whenever $\mathbf H$ has a decidable membership problem. In particular, the separation problem for $\overline{\mathbf H}$-languages is decidable for any decidable variety of finite groups $\mathbf H$. This generalizes Henckell's theorem on decidability of aperiodic pointlikes.

This paper provides short proofs of two fundamental theorems of finite semigroup theory whose previous proofs were significantly longer, namely the two-sided Krohn-Rhodes decomposition theorem and Henckell’s aperiodic pointlike theorem. We use a new algebraic technique that we call the merge decomposition. A prototypical application of this technique decomposes a semigroup $T$ into a two-sided semidirect product whose components are built from two subsemigroups $T_{1}$, $T_{2}$, which together generate $T$, and the subsemigroup generated by their setwise product $T_{1}T_{2}$. In this sense we decompose $T$ by merging the subsemigroups $T_{1}$ and $T_{2}$. More generally, our technique merges semigroup homomorphisms from free semigroups.

Graded modalities have been proposed in recent work on programming languages as a general framework for refining type systems with intensional properties. In particular, continuous endomaps of the discrete time scale, or time warps, can be used to quantify the growth of information in the course of program execution. Time warps form a complete residuated lattice, with the residuals playing an important role in potential programming applications. In this paper, we study the algebraic structure of time warps, and prove that their equational theory is decidable, a necessary condition for their use in real-world compilers. We also describe how our universal-algebraic proof technique lends itself to a constraint-based implementation, establishing a new link between universal algebra and verification technology.

We provide a new perspective on extended Priestley duality for a large class of distributive lattices equipped with binary double quasioperators. Under this approach, non-lattice binary operations are each presented as a pair of partial binary operations on dual spaces. In this enriched environment, equational conditions on the algebraic side of the duality may more often be rendered as first-order conditions on dual spaces. In particular, we specialize our general results to the variety of MV-algebras, obtaining a duality for these in which the equations axiomatizing MV-algebras are dualized as first-order conditions.

We prove an open mapping theorem for the topological spaces dual to finitely presented Heyting algebras. This yields in particular a short, self-contained semantic proof of the uniform interpolation theorem for intuitionistic propositional logic, first proved by Pitts in 1992. Our proof is based on the methods of Ghilardi & Zawadowski. However, our proof does not require sheaves nor games, only basic duality theory for Heyting algebras., 8 pages. Minor changes in presentation. To appear in Topology and its Applications

Uniform interpolation properties are defined for equational consequence in a variety of algebras and related to properties of compact congruences on first the free and then the finitely presented algebras of the variety. It is also shown, following related results of Ghilardi and Zawadowski, that a combination of these properties provides a sufficient condition for the first-order theory of the variety to admit a model completion., 33 pages

Monadic second order logic and linear temporal logic are two logical formalisms that can be used to describe classes of infinite words, i.e., first-order models based on the natural numbers with order, successor, and finitely many unary predicate symbols. Monadic second order logic over infinite words (S1S) can alternatively be described as a first-order logic interpreted in $\mathcal{P}(\omega)$, the power set Boolean algebra of the natural numbers, equipped with modal operators for 'initial', 'next' and 'future' states. We prove that the first-order theory of this structure is the model companion of a class of algebras corresponding to the appropriate version of linear temporal logic (LTL) without until. The proof makes crucial use of two classical, non-trivial results from the literature, namely the completeness of LTL with respect to the natural numbers, and the correspondence between S1S-formulas and B\"uchi automata., Comment: 15 pages

It has long been known in universal algebra that any distributive sublattice of congruences of an algebra which consists entirely of commuting congruences yields a sheaf representation of the algebra. In this paper we provide a generalisation of this fact and prove a converse of the generalisation. To be precise, we exhibit a one-to-one correspondence (up to isomorphism) between soft sheaf representations of universal algebras over stably compact spaces and frame homomorphisms from the dual frames of such spaces into subframes of pairwise commuting congruences of the congruence lattices of the universal algebras. For distributive-lattice-ordered algebras this allows us to dualize such sheaf representations., Comment: 22 pages

We establish a topological duality for bounded lattices. The two main features of our duality are that it generalizes Stone duality for bounded distributive lattices, and that the morphisms on either side are not the standard ones. A positive consequence of the choice of morphisms is that those on the topological side are functional. Towards obtaining the topological duality, we develop a universal construction which associates to an arbitrary lattice two distributive lattice envelopes with a Galois connection between them. This is a modification of a construction of the injective hull of a semilattice by Bruns and Lakser, adjusting their concept of 'admissibility' to the finitary case. Finally, we show that the dual spaces of the distributive envelopes of a lattice coincide with completions of quasi-uniform spaces naturally associated with the lattice, thus giving a precise spatial meaning to the distributive envelopes.

In this article we introduce a new setting, based on partial algebras, for studying constructions of finitely generated free algebras. We give sufficient conditions under which the finitely generated free algebras for a variety V may be described as the colimit of a chain of finite partial algebras obtained by repeated application of a functor. In particular, our method encompasses the construction of finitely generated free algebras for varieties of algebras for a functor as in Bezhanishvili and Kurz (2007, LNCS, 143–157), Heyting algebras as in Bezhanishvili and Gehrke (2011, LMCS, 7, 1–24) and S4 algebras as in Ghilardi (2010, J. Appl. Non-classical, Logics, 20, 193–217).

We prove that the category of left-handed strongly distributive skew lattices with zero and proper homomorphisms is dually equivalent to a category of sheaves over local Priestley spaces. Our result thus provides a non-commutative version of classical Priestley duality for distributive lattices and generalizes the recent development of Stone duality for skew Boolean algebras. From the point of view of skew lattices, Leech showed early on that any strongly distributive skew lattice can be embedded in the skew lattice of partial functions on some set with the operations being given by restriction and so-called override. Our duality shows that there is a canonical choice for this embedding. Conversely, from the point of view of sheaves over Boolean spaces, our results show that skew lattices correspond to Priestley orders on these spaces and that skew lattice structures are naturally appropriate in any setting involving sheaves over Priestley spaces., Comment: 20 pages

We study representations of MV-algebras -- equivalently, unital lattice-ordered abelian groups -- through the lens of Stone-Priestley duality, using canonical extensions as an essential tool. Specifically, the theory of canonical extensions implies that the (Stone-Priestley) dual spaces of MV-algebras carry the structure of topological partial commutative ordered semigroups. We use this structure to obtain two different decompositions of such spaces, one indexed over the prime MV-spectrum, the other over the maximal MV-spectrum. These decompositions yield sheaf representations of MV-algebras, using a new and purely duality-theoretic result that relates certain sheaf representations of distributive lattices to decompositions of their dual spaces. Importantly, the proofs of the MV-algebraic representation theorems that we obtain in this way are distinguished from the existing work on this topic by the following features: (1) we use only basic algebraic facts about MV-algebras; (2) we show that the two aforementioned sheaf representations are special cases of a common result, with potential for generalizations; and (3) we show that these results are strongly related to the structure of the Stone-Priestley duals of MV-algebras. In addition, using our analysis of these decompositions, we prove that MV-algebras with isomorphic underlying lattices have homeomorphic maximal MV-spectra. This result is an MV-algebraic generalization of a classical theorem by Kaplansky stating that two compact Hausdorff spaces are homeomorphic if, and only if, the lattices of continuous [0, 1]-valued functions on the spaces are isomorphic., 36 pages, 1 table

We construct a canonical extension for strong proximity lattices in order to give an algebraic, point-free description of a finitary duality for stably compact spaces. In this setting not only morphisms, but also objects may have distinct pi- and sigma-extensions., 29 pages, 1 figure