The tensor product of Archimedean ordered vector spaces

Abstract

A Riesz space tensor product of Archimedean Riesz spaces was introduced by D. H. Fremlin[2, 3]. His construction as well as a subsequent simplified version by H. H. Schaefer[10] depended on representation techniques and it is our aim to find a more direct way to prove the existence of the tensor product and to derive its properties. This tensor product proved to be extremely useful in the theory of positive operators on Banach lattices (see [3] and [10]) and should be considered as one of the basic constructions in the theory of Riesz spaces. It is therefore of interest to construct it in an intrinsic way. The problem to do this was already posed by Fremlin in [2]. In this paper we shall present two different approaches, the first of which is analogous to the formation of a free lattice generated by a given partially ordered set. (See [5], p. 41.) In the second one we first assume the Riesz spaces involved to have the principal projection property. In this case a simple method of construction by step-elements is available and the tensor product of arbitrary Archimedean Riesz spaces can then be obtained by embedding the spaces into their Dedekind completions. To complete the latter step we need results on the extension of Riesz bimorphisms which will be proved in §1. Both our approaches hinge on results about the tensor product of ordered vector spaces. It turns out that a unique tensor product for ordered vector spaces exists and is contained in the Riesz space tensor product. This is investigated in §2.