Bayesian inference provides a probabilistic reasoning process for drawing conclusions based on imprecise and uncertain data that has been successful in many applications within robotics and information processing, but is most often considered in terms of data analysis rather than synthesis of behaviours. This paper presents the use of Bayesian inference as a means by which to perform Boolean operations in a logic programme while incorporating and propagating uncertainty information through logic operations by inference. Boolean logic operations are implemented in a Bayesian network of Bernoulli random variables with tensor-based discrete distributions to enable probabilistic hybrid logic programming of a robot. This enables Bayesian inference operations to coexist with Boolean logic in a unified system while retaining the ability to capture uncertainty by means of discrete probability distributions. Using a discrete Bayesian network with both Boolean and Bayesian elements, the proposed methodology is applied to navigate a mobile robot using hybrid Bayesian and Boolean operations to illustrate how this new approach improves robotic performance by inclusion of uncertainty without increasing the number of logic elements required. As any logical system could be programmed in this manner to integrate uncertainty into decision-making, this methodology can benefit a wide range of applications that use discrete or probabilistic logic.

We investigate the structure of ultrafilters on Boolean algebras in the framework of Tukey reducibility. In particular, this paper provides several techniques to construct ultrafilters which are not Tukey maximal. Furthermore, we connect this analysis with a cardinal invariant of Boolean algebras, the ultrafilter number, and prove consistency results concerning its possible values on Cohen and random algebras.

This paper investigates the principles that one must add to Boolean algebra to capture reasoning not only about intersection, union, and complementation of sets, but also about the relative size of sets. We completely axiomatize such reasoning under the Cantorian definition of relative size in terms of injections.

Let $X$ be a nonempty set and ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ the power set of $X$. The aim of this paper is to identify the unital subrings of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ and to compute its cardinality when it is finite. It is proved that any topology $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$ on $X$ such that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}^{c}$, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}^{c}=\{U^{c}\mid U\in \unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\}$, is a unital subring of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$. It is also shown that $X$ is finite if and only if any unital subring of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is a topology $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$ on $X$ such that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}^{c}$ if and only if the set of unital subrings of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is finite. As a consequence, if $X$ is finite with cardinality $n\geq 2$, then the number of unital subrings of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is equal to the $n$th Bell number and the supremum of the lengths of chains of unital subalgebras of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is equal to $n-1$.

The standard topological representation of a Boolean algebra via the clopen sets of a Stone space requires a nonconstructive choice principle, equivalent to the Boolean Prime Ideal Theorem. In this article, we describe a choice-free topological representation of Boolean algebras. This representation uses a subclass of the spectral spaces that Stone used in his representation of distributive lattices via compact open sets. It also takes advantage of Tarski’s observation that the regular open sets of any topological space form a Boolean algebra. We prove without choice principles that any Boolean algebra arises from a special spectral space X via the compact regular open sets of X; these sets may also be described as those that are both compact open in X and regular open in the upset topology of the specialization order of X, allowing one to apply to an arbitrary Boolean algebra simple reasoning about regular opens of a separative poset. Our representation is therefore a mix of Stone and Tarski, with the two connected by Vietoris: the relevant spectral spaces also arise as the hyperspace of nonempty closed sets of a Stone space endowed with the upper Vietoris topology. This connection makes clear the relation between our point-set topological approach to choice-free Stone duality, which may be called the hyperspace approach, and a point-free approach to choice-free Stone duality using Stone locales. Unlike Stone’s representation of Boolean algebras via Stone spaces, our choice-free topological representation of Boolean algebras does not show that every Boolean algebra can be represented as a field of sets; but like Stone’s representation, it provides the benefit of a topological perspective on Boolean algebras, only now without choice. In addition to representation, we establish a choice-free dual equivalence between the category of Boolean algebras with Boolean homomorphisms and a subcategory of the category of spectral spaces with spectral maps. We show how this duality can be used to prove some basic facts about Boolean algebras.

This article investigates Charles Peirce’s development of logical calculi for classical propositional logic in 1880–1896. Peirce’s 1880 work on the algebra of logic resulted in a successful calculus for Boolean algebra. This calculus, denoted by PC, is here presented as a sequent calculus and not as a natural deduction system. It is shown that Peirce’s aim was to present PC as a sequent calculus. The law of distributivity, which Peirce states in 1880, is proved using Peirce’s Rule, which is a residuation, in PC. The transitional systems of the algebra of the copula that Peirce develops since 1880 paved the way to the 1896 graphical system of the alpha graphs. It is shown how the rules of the alpha system reinterpret Boolean algebras, answering Peirce’s statement that logical graphs supply a new system of fundamental assumptions to logical algebra. A proof-theoretic analysis is given for the connection between PC and the alpha system.

We give a description of the atoms in the Boolean algebra generated by the integral subsets of a finite group.

The aim of the present paper is to extend the dualizing object approach to Stone duality to the noncommutative setting of skew Boolean algebras. This continues the study of noncommutative generalizations of different forms of Stone duality initiated in recent papers by Bauer and Cvetko-Vah, Lawson, Lawson and Lenz, Resende, and also the current author. In this paper we construct a series of dual adjunctions between the categories of left-handed skew Boolean algebras and Boolean spaces, the unital versions of which are induced by dualizing objects $\{ 0, 1, \ldots , n+ 1\} $, $n\geq 0$. We describe the categories of Eilenberg-Moore algebras of the monads of the adjunctions and construct easily understood noncommutative reflections of left-handed skew Boolean algebras, where the latter can be faithfully embedded (if $n\geq 1$) in a canonical way. As an application, we answer the question that arose in a recent paper by Leech and Spinks to describe the left adjoint to their ‘twisted product’ functor $\omega $.

In Flaminio and Montagna [‘An algebraic approach to states on MV-algebras’, in: Fuzzy Logic 2, Proc. 5th EUSFLAT Conference, Ostrava, 11–14 September 2007 (ed. V. Novák) (Universitas Ostraviensis, Ostrava, 2007), Vol. II, pp. 201–206; ‘MV-algebras with internal states and probabilistic fuzzy logic’, Internat. J. Approx. Reason.50 (2009), 138–152], the authors introduced MV-algebras with an internal state, called state MV-algebras. (The letters MV stand for multi-valued.) In Di Nola and Dvurečenskij [‘State-morphism MV-algebras’, Ann. Pure Appl. Logic161 (2009), 161–173], a stronger version of state MV-algebras, called state-morphism MV-algebras, was defined. In this paper, we present the Loomis–Sikorski theorem for σ-complete MV-algebras with a σ-complete state-morphism-operator, showing that every such MV-algebra is aσ-homomorphic image of a tribe of functions with an internal state induced by a function where all the MV-operations are defined by points.

Effect algebras, which generalize the lattice of projections in a von Neumann algebra, serve as a basis for the study of unsharp observables in quantum mechanics. The direct decomposition of a von Neumann algebra into types I, II, and III is reflected by a corresponding decomposition of its lattice of projections, and vice versa. More generally, in a centrally orthocomplete effect algebra, the so-called type-determining sets induce direct decompositions into various types. In this paper, we extend the theory of type decomposition to a (possibly) noncommutative version of an effect algebra called a pseudoeffect algebra. It has been argued that pseudoeffect algebras constitute a natural structure for the study of noncommuting unsharp or fuzzy observables. We develop the basic theory of centrally orthocomplete pseudoeffect algebras, generalize the notion of a type-determining set to pseudoeffect algebras, and show how type-determining sets induce direct decompositions of centrally orthocomplete pseudoeffect algebras.

We characterize the (κ, λ, < μ)-distributive law in Boolean algebras in terms of cut and choose games , when μ ≤ κ ≤ λ and κ<κ = κ. This builds on previous work to yield game-theoretic characterizations of distributive laws for almost all triples of cardinals κ, λ, μ with μ ≤ λ, under GCH. In the case when μ ≤ κ ≤ λ and κ<κ = κ, we show that it is necessary to consider whether the κ-stationarity of in the ground model is preserved by . In this vein, we develop the theory of κ-club and κ-stationary subsets of . We also construct Boolean algebras in which Player I wins but the (κ, ∞, κ)-d.1. holds, and, assuming GCH, construct Boolean algebras in which many games are undetermined.

Three basic operations on labelled net structures are proposed: synchronised union, synchronised intersection and synchronised difference. The first of them is a version of known parallel composition with synchronised actions identically labelled. The operations work analogously to the ordinary union, intersection and difference on sets. It is shown that the universe of net structures with these operations is a distributive lattice and – if infinite pre/post sets of transitions are allowed – even a Boolean algebra. As a consequence, some representation theorems of this algebra are stated. The primitive objects are atomic net structures containing one transition with at most one pre-place or post-place (but not both). A simple example of a production system constructed by making use of the operations (and its transformations) is given. Some remarks on behavioural properties of compound nets are stated, in particular, how some constructing strategies may help to infer liveness. The latter issue is limited to semantics of place/transition nets without weights on arrows and with unbounded capacity of places and is not extensively investigated, since the main objective is focused on a calculus of net structures.

It is unprovable that every complete subalgebra of a countably closed complete Boolean algebra is countably closed.

We answer three problems by J. D. Monk on cardinal invariants of Boolean algebras. Two of these are whether taking the algebraic density πA resp. the topological density cL4 of a Boolean algebra A commutes with formation of ultraproducts; the third one compares the number of endomorphisms and of ideals of a Boolean algebra.

Let B be a Boolean algebra and G a group of automorphisms of B. Define an equivalence relation ∼ on B by letting x ∼ y if there are x1, x2,…,xn, y1, y2, …yn in B such that x is the disjoint union of the xi, y is the disjoint union of the yi, and for each i there is a member of G taking xi to yi. The equivalence classes under ∼ are called equidecomposability types. Addition of equidecomposability types is given by (x) + (y) = (x V y) provided x ∧ y = 0. An example is given of a complete Boolean algebra B and a group G of automorphisms of B with X, Y ∊ B such that (X) + (X) = (Y) + (Y) but (X) ≠ (Y), answering a question of Wagon (see [5 p. 231 problem 14]). Moreover B may be taken to be the algebra of Borel subsets of Cantor space modulo sets of the first category. It is also remarked that in this case equidecomposability types do not form a weak cardinal algebra.