The overlap algebra of regular opens

Abstract

Overlap algebras are complete lattices enriched with an extra primitive relation, called “overlap”. The new notion of overlap relation satisfies a set of axioms intended to capture, in a positive way, the properties which hold for two elements with non-zero infimum. For each set, its powerset is an example of overlap algebra where two subsets overlap each other when their intersection is inhabited. Moreover, atomic overlap algebras are naturally isomorphic to the powerset of the set of their atoms. Overlap algebras can be seen as particular open (or overt) locales and, from a classical point of view, they essentially coincide with complete Boolean algebras. Contrary to the latter, overlap algebras offer a negation-free framework suitable, among other things, for the development of point-free topology. A lot of topology can be done “inside” the language of overlap algebra. In particular, we prove that the collection of all regular open subsets of a topological space is an example of overlap algebra which, under natural hypotheses, is atomless. Since they are a constructive counterpart to complete Boolean algebras and, at the same time, they have a more powerful axiomatization than Heyting algebras, overlap algebras are expected to turn out useful both in constructive mathematics and for applications in computer science.