Abstract
The Mal’tsev product of two varieties of similar algebras is always a quasivariety. We consider the question of when this quasivariety is a variety. The main result asserts that if \(\mathcal {V}\) is a strongly irregular variety with no nullary operations and at least one non-unary operation, and \(\mathcal {S}\) is the variety, of the same type as \(\mathcal {V}\), equivalent to the variety of semilattices, then the Mal’tsev product \(\mathcal {V}\circ \mathcal {S}\) is a variety. It consists precisely of semilattice sums of algebras in \(\mathcal {V}\). We derive an equational base for the product from an equational base for \(\mathcal {V}\). However, if \(\mathcal {V}\) is a regular variety, then the Mal’tsev product may not be a variety. We discuss various applications of the main result, and examine some detailed representations of algebras in \(\mathcal {V}\circ \mathcal {S}\).
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Presented by R. Freese.
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Research of the first author was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant no. 1500235. The second author’s research was supported by the Warsaw University of Technology under Grant number 504/04259/1120.
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Bergman, C., Penza, T. & Romanowska, A.B. Semilattice sums of algebras and Mal’tsev products of varieties. Algebra Univers. 81, 33 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00012-020-00656-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00012-020-00656-8