en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currying
1 correction found
Distributive Heyting algebras are Boolean algebras
This is false. Heyting algebras are already distributive, but distributivity does not make them Boolean; for example, the Sierpiński topology is a distributive Heyting algebra that is not Boolean.
Full reasoning
Encyclopedia of Mathematics states that pseudo-Boolean algebras are also called Heyting algebras and that every pseudo-Boolean algebra is a distributive lattice. So every Heyting algebra is already distributive.
The same source also gives a concrete class of examples: topologies on a set are complete pseudo-Boolean/Heyting algebras. Take the topology ({\varnothing, {1}, {0,1}}) on the 2-element set ({0,1}) (the Sierpiński topology). By that source, this is a Heyting algebra, hence distributive.
But it is not a Boolean algebra. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines a Boolean algebra using complement laws such as (x + (-x) = 1) and (x \cdot (-x) = 0), i.e. every element must have a complement. In the Sierpiński topology, the middle element ({1}) has set-theoretic complement ({0}), but ({0}) is not open and therefore is not an element of the algebra. So ({1}) has no complement there.
That gives a direct counterexample: a distributive Heyting algebra that is not Boolean. So the claim Distributive Heyting algebras are Boolean algebras is incorrect.
2 sources
- Pseudo-Boolean algebra - Encyclopedia of Mathematics
Every pseudo-Boolean algebra is a distributive lattice with largest element 1 ... Pseudo-Boolean algebras are also called Heyting algebras. ... For any set U, the set {X : X ⊆ U}, ordered by inclusion, is a complete pseudo-Boolean algebra. Its subalgebras are exactly the topologies on U.
- The Mathematics of Boolean Algebra - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
A Boolean algebra (BA) is a set A together with binary operations + and · and a unary operation −, and elements 0, 1 of A such that ... x + (−x) = 1 ... x · (−x) = 0.