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On Single Equational-Axiom Systems for Abelian Groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2009

R Padmanabhan
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics Madurai UniversityMadurai 2 (India).
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It is a fascinating problem in the axiomatics of any mathematical system to reduce the number of axioms, the number of variables used in each axiom, the length of the various identities, the number of concepts involved in the system etc. to a minimum. In other words, one is interested finding systems which are apparently ‘of different structures’ but which represent the same reality. Sheffer's stroke operation and. Byrne's brief formulations of Boolean algebras [1], Sholander's characterization of distributive lattices [7] and Sorkin's famous problem of characterizing lattices by means of two identities are all in the same spirit. In groups, when defined as usual, we demand a binary, unary and a nullary operation respectively, say, a, b →a·b; a→a−1; the existence of a unit element). However, as G. Rabinow first proved in [6], groups can be made as a subvariety of groupoids (mathematical systems with just one binary operation) with the operation * where a * b is the right division, ab−1. [8], M. Sholander proved the striking result that a mathematical system closed under a binary operation * and satisfying the identity S: x * ((x *z) * (y *z)) = y is an abelian group. Yet another identity, already known in the literature, characterizing abelian groups is HN: x * ((z * y) * (z * a;)) = y which is due to G. Higman and B. H. Neumann ([3], [4])*. As can be seen both the identities are of length six and both of them belong to the same ‘bracketting scheme’ or ‘bracket type’.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Mathematical Society 1969

References

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