In mathematics, a De Morgan algebra (named after Augustus De Morgan, a British mathematician and logician) is a structure A = (A, ∨, ∧, 0, 1, ¬) such that:
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In a De Morgan algebra, the laws
do not always hold. In the presence of the De Morgan laws, either law implies the other, and an algebra which satisfies them becomes a Boolean algebra.
Remark: It follows that ¬( x∨y) = ¬x∧¬y, ¬1 = 0 and ¬0 = 1 (e.g. ¬1 = ¬1∨0 = ¬1∨¬¬0 = ¬(1∧¬0) = ¬¬0 = 0). Thus ¬ is a dual automorphism.
If the lattice is defined in terms of the order instead, i.e. (A, ≤) is a bounded partial order with a least upper bound and greatest lower bound for every pair of elements, and the meet and join operations so defined satisfy the distributive law, then the complementation can also be defined as an involutive anti-automorphism, that is, a structure A = (A, ≤, ¬) such that:
De Morgan algebras were introduced by Grigore Moisil around 1935. although without the restriction of having a 0 and an 1. They were then variously called quasi-boolean algebras in the Polish school, e.g. by Rasiowa and also distributive i-lattices by J. A. Kalman. (i-lattice being an abbreviation for lattice with involution.) They have been further studied in the Argentinian algebraic logic school of Antonio Monteiro.
De Morgan algebras are important for the study of the mathematical aspects of fuzzy logic. The standard fuzzy algebra F = ([0, 1], max(x, y), min(x, y), 0, 1, 1 − x) is an example of a De Morgan algebra where the laws of excluded middle and noncontradiction do not hold.
Another example is Dunn's 4-valued logic, in which false < neither-true-nor-false < true and false < both-true-and-false < true, while neither-true-nor-false and both-true-and-false are not comparable.
Kleene algebra
If a De Morgan algebra additionally satisfies x ∧ ¬x ≤ y ∨ ¬y, it is called a Kleene algebra. (This notion should not to be confused with the other Kleene algebra generalizing regular expressions.) This notion has also been called a normal i-lattice by Kalman.
Examples of Kleene algebras in the sense defined above include: lattice-ordered groups, Post algebras and Łukasiewicz algebras. Boolean algebras also meet this definition of Kleene algebra. The simplest Kleene algebra that is not Boolean is Kleene's three-valued logic K3. K3 made its first appearance in Kleene's On notation for ordinal numbers (1938). The algebra was named after Kleene by Brignole and Monteiro.
Related notions
De Morgan algebra is not the only plausible way to generalize the Boolean algebra. Another way is to keep ¬x ∧ x = 0 (i.e. the law of noncontradiction) but to drop the law of the excluded middle and the law of double negation. This approach (called semicomplementation) is well-defined even for a [meet] semilattice; if the set of semicomplements has a greatest element it is usually called pseudocomplement. If the pseudocomplement thus defined satisfies the law of the excluded middle, the resulting algebra is also Boolean. However, if only the weaker law ¬x ∨ ¬¬x = 1 is required, this results in Stone algebras. More generally, both De Morgan and Stone algebras are proper subclasses of Ockham algebras.