Canonical extensions and ultraproducts of polarities

J{\'o}nsson and Tarski's notion of the perfect extension of a Boolean algebra with operators has evolved into an extensive theory of canonical extensions of lattice-based algebras. After reviewing this evolution we make two contributions. First it is shown that the failure of a variety of algebras to be closed under canonical extensions is witnessed by a particular one of its free algebras. The size of the set of generators of this algebra can be made a function of a collection of varieties and is a kind of Hanf number for canonical closure. Secondly we study the complete lattice of stable subsets of a polarity structure, and show that if a class of polarities is closed under ultraproducts, then its stable set lattices generate a variety that is closed under canonical extensions. This generalises an earlier result of the author about generation of canonically closed varieties of Boolean algebras with operators, which was in turn an abstraction of the result that a first-order definable class of Kripke frames determines a modal logic that is valid in its so-called canonical frames

Satisfiability in multi-valued circuits

Satisfiability of Boolean circuits is among the most known and important problems in theoretical computer science. This problem is NP-complete in general but becomes polynomial time when restricted either to monotone gates or linear gates. We go outside Boolean realm and consider circuits built of any fixed set of gates on an arbitrary large finite domain. From the complexity point of view this is strictly connected with the problems of solving equations (or systems of equations) over finite algebras. The research reported in this work was motivated by a desire to know for which finite algebras $\mathbf A$ there is a polynomial time algorithm that decides if an equation over $\mathbf A$ has a solution. We are also looking for polynomial time algorithms that decide if two circuits over a finite algebra compute the same function. Although we have not managed to solve these problems in the most general setting we have obtained such a characterization for a very broad class of algebras from congruence modular varieties. This class includes most known and well-studied algebras such as groups, rings, modules (and their generalizations like quasigroups, loops, near-rings, nonassociative rings, Lie algebras), lattices (and their extensions like Boolean algebras, Heyting algebras or other algebras connected with multi-valued logics including MV-algebras). This paper seems to be the first systematic study of the computational complexity of satisfiability of non-Boolean circuits and solving equations over finite algebras. The characterization results provided by the paper is given in terms of nice structural properties of algebras for which the problems are solvable in polynomial time.Comment: 50 page

Cevian operations on distributive lattices

We construct a completely normal bounded distributive lattice D in which for every pair (a, b) of elements, the set {x $\in$ D | a $\le$ b $\lor$ x} has a countable coinitial subset, such that D does not carry any binary operation - satisfying the identities x $\le$ y $\lor$(x-y),(x-y)$\land$(y-x) = 0, and x-z $\le$ (x-y)$\lor$(y-z). In particular, D is not a homomorphic image of the lattice of all finitely generated convex {\ell}-subgroups of any (not necessarily Abelian) {\ell}-group. It has $\aleph 2 elements. This solves negatively a few problems stated by Iberkleid, Mart{\'i}nez, and McGovern in 2011 and recently by the author. This work also serves as preparation for a forthcoming paper in which we prove that for any infinite cardinal$\lambda$, the class of Stone duals of spectra of all Abelian {\ell}-groups with order-unit is not closed under L$\infty$$\lambda$-elementary equivalence.Comment: 23 pages. v2 removes a redundancy from the definition of a Cevian operation in v1.In Theorem 5.12, Idc should be replaced by Csc (especially on the G side

The State-of-the-Art of Set Visualization

Sets comprise a generic data model that has been used in a variety of data analysis problems. Such problems involve analysing and visualizing set relations between multiple sets defined over the same collection of elements. However, visualizing sets is a non-trivial problem due to the large number of possible relations between them. We provide a systematic overview of state-of-the-art techniques for visualizing different kinds of set relations. We classify these techniques into six main categories according to the visual representations they use and the tasks they support. We compare the categories to provide guidance for choosing an appropriate technique for a given problem. Finally, we identify challenges in this area that need further research and propose possible directions to address these challenges. Further resources on set visualization are available at http://www.setviz.net