International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences
Volume 2003 (2003), Issue 44, Pages 2787-2801
doi:10.1155/S0161171203210395

Archimedean unital groups with finite unit intervals

David J. Foulis

Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003, MA, USA

Abstract

Let G be a unital group with a finite unit interval E, let n be the number of atoms in E, and let κ be the number of extreme points of the state space Ω(G). We introduce canonical order-preserving group homomorphisms ξ:nG and ρ:Gκ linking G with the simplicial groups n and κ.We show that ξ is a surjection and ρ is an injection if and only if G is torsion-free. We give an explicit construction of the universal group (unigroup) for E using the canonical surjection ξ. If G is torsion-free, then the canonical injection ρ is used to show that G is Archimedean if and only if its positive cone is determined by a finite number of homogeneous linear inequalities with integer coefficients.