Algebra univers. 60 (2009) 365–367 0002-5240/09/030365 – 03, published online March 16, 2009 DOI 10.1007/s00012-009-2109-1 c Birkh¨ ° auser Verlag, Basel, 2009
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A Cayley theorem for distributive lattices ¨nger Ivan Chajda and Helmut La Abstract. A Cayley-like representation theorem for distributive lattices is proved.
Cayley’s Theorem provides a well-known representation of groups by means of certain unary functions (the so-called permutations) with composition as its binary operation. For Boolean algebras, a representation via binary functions (the so´ called guard functions) was settled by Bloom, Esik and Manes ([2], see also [1]). A similar approach was used by the first author for the so-called q-algebras (cf. [3]). In this note we will present a representation of distributive lattices by a different type of binary functions. First we define an algebra in which we will embed the distributive lattices. 2
Definition 1. For every set M , let F(M ) denote the algebra (M M , ⋄, ∗) of type (2, 2) defined by (f ⋄ g)(x, y) := f (g(x, y), y) and (f ∗ g)(x, y) := f (x, g(x, y)) for all 2 f, g ∈ M M and x, y ∈ M . F(M ) is not a lattice, but we can prove the following weaker fact: Lemma 2. ⋄ and ∗ are associative. 2
Proof. For all f, g, h ∈ M M and x, y ∈ M , ((f ⋄ g) ⋄ h)(x, y) = (f ⋄ g)(h(x, y), y) = f (g(h(x, y), y), y) = f ((g ⋄ h)(x, y), y) = (f ⋄ (g ⋄ h))(x, y) and ((f ∗ g) ∗ h)(x, y) = (f ∗ g)(x, h(x, y)) = f (x, g(x, h(x, y))) = f (x, (g ∗ h)(x, y)) = (f ∗ (g ∗ h))(x, y).
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Next, for every lattice with base set L we define a mapping ϕ from L to LL . Presented by E. T. Schmidt. Received May 23, 2007; accepted in final form February 20, 2008. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 06D05. Key words and phrases: distributive lattice, representation, binary function, composition of functions. Support of the research of the first author by the Czech Government Research Project MSM 6198959214 is gratefully acknowledged. 365
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I. Chajda and H. L¨ anger
Algebra univers.
Definition 3. For every lattice (L, ∨, ∧) and every a ∈ L, let fa denote the mapping 2 (x, y) 7→ (a ∨ x) ∧ y from L2 to L and ϕ the mapping a 7→ fa from L to LL . Now we can state and prove our main result: Theorem 4. For every distributive lattice L = (L, ∨, ∧), the mapping ϕ is an embedding of L into F(L). Proof. Let (L, ∨, ∧) be a distributive lattice. Then, for all a, b, x, y ∈ L, fa∨b (x, y) = (a ∨ b ∨ x) ∧ y = (a ∧ y) ∨ (b ∧ y) ∨ (x ∧ y) = (a ∧ y) ∨ ((b ∨ x) ∧ y) = (a ∨ ((b ∨ x) ∧ y)) ∧ y = fa (fb (x, y), y) = (fa ⋄ fb )(x, y), and fa∧b (x, y) = ((a ∧ b) ∨ x) ∧ y = (a ∨ x) ∧ (b ∨ x) ∧ y = fa (x, fb (x, y)) = (fa ∗ fb )(x, y), and fa = fb implies a = (a ∨ b) ∧ a = fa (b, a) = fb (b, a) = (b ∨ b) ∧ a = b ∧ a = a ∧ b = (a ∨ a) ∧ b = fa (a, b) = fb (a, b) = (b ∨ a) ∧ b = b. Hence ϕ is an injective homomorphism from L to F(L).
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That, for a distributive lattice (L, ∨, ∧), the algebra (ϕ(L), ⋄, ∗) is a lattice follows from a more general result. In order to be able to formulate this result in a concise way we make the following definition: Definition 5. We call a subuniverse A of F(M ) full if, for all f, g ∈ A and x, y, z, u ∈ M , (i) f (x, x) = x, (ii) f (g(x, y), g(z, u)) = g(f (x, z), f (y, u)) and (iii) f (f (x, g(x, y)), y) = f (x, f (g(x, y), y)) = f (x, y). Now we can prove Theorem 6. If A is a full subuniverse of F(M ), then (A, ⋄, ∗) is a lattice. Proof. Let A be a full subuniverse of F(M ). Then, for all f, g ∈ A and x, y ∈ M , (f ⋄ g)(x, y) = f (g(x, y), y) = f (g(x, y), g(y, y)) = g(f (x, y), f (y, y)) = g(f (x, y), y) = (g ⋄ f )(x, y), (f ∗ g)(x, y) = f (x, g(x, y)) = f (g(x, x), g(x, y)) = g(f (x, x), f (x, y)) = g(x, f (x, y)) = (g ∗ f )(x, y), (f ⋄ (f ∗ g))(x, y) = f ((f ∗ g)(x, y), y) = f (f (x, g(x, y)), y) = f (x, y), and (f ∗ (f ⋄ g))(x, y) = f (x, (f ⋄ g)(x, y)) = f (x, f (g(x, y), y)) = f (x, y). The rest follows from Lemma 2.
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Vol. 60, 2009
A Cayley theorem for distributive lattices
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That, for a distributive lattice (L, ∨, ∧), the algebra (ϕ(L), ⋄, ∗) is a lattice now follows from Theorem 7. If L = (L, ∨, ∧) is a distributive lattice, then ϕ(L) is a full subuniverse of F(L) and hence (ϕ(L), ⋄, ∗) is a lattice. Proof. Let (L, ∨, ∧) be a distributive lattice. Then, for all a, b, x, y, z, u ∈ L, fa (x, x) = (a ∨ x) ∧ x = x, fa (fb (x, y), fb (z, u)) = (a ∨ ((b ∨ x) ∧ y)) ∧ (b ∨ z) ∧ u = (a ∨ b ∨ x) ∧ (a ∨ y) ∧ (b ∨ z) ∧ u = (a ∨ b ∨ x) ∧ (b ∨ z) ∧ (a ∨ y) ∧ u = = (b ∨ ((a ∨ x) ∧ z)) ∧ (a ∨ y) ∧ u = fb (fa (x, z), fa (y, u)), fa (fa (x, fb (x, y)), y) = (a ∨ ((a ∨ x) ∧ (b ∨ x) ∧ y)) ∧ y = (a ∨ x) ∧ (a ∨ b ∨ x) ∧ (a ∨ y) ∧ y = (a ∨ x) ∧ y = fa (x, y), and fa (x, fa (fb (x, y), y)) = (a ∨ x) ∧ (a ∨ ((b ∨ x) ∧ y)) ∧ y = (a ∨ x) ∧ (a ∨ b ∨ x) ∧ (a ∨ y) ∧ y = (a ∨ x) ∧ y = fa (x, y). The rest follows from the proof of Theorem 4 and from Theorem 6.
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References ´ [1] S. L. Bloom and Z. Esik, Cayley iff Stone, Bull. EATCS 43 (1991), 159–161. ´ [2] S. L. Bloom, Z. Esik and E. G. Manes, A Cayley theorem for Boolean algebras, Amer. Math. Monthly 97 (1990), 831–833. [3] I. Chajda, A representation of the algebra of quasiordered logic by binary functions, Demonstratio Math. 27 (1994), 601–607. Ivan Chajda Palack´ y University Olomouc, Department of Algebra and Geometry, Tomkova 40, 77900 Olomouc, Czech Republic e-mail:
[email protected] ¨nger Helmut La Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Discrete Mathematics and Geometry, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8–10, 1040 Vienna, Austria e-mail:
[email protected] 
