Pure Maths Colloquium: Ashley Clayton

This talk is part of the Pure Maths Colloquium at the University of St Andrews. Check out our upcoming talks at https://theran.lt/pure-colloquium/.

Where: Purdie Theatre C
When: Mar 3 2022 @ 16.00
Video: Not recorded
Speaker: Ashley Clayton University of St Andrews
Title: Countable subdirect powers of algebras

A countable subdirect power of a finite algebra \(A\) is a subalgebra of the countable cartesian power \(A^N\) consisting of countably many elements, for which the natural projection maps onto \(A\) are surjections. In 1982, McKenzie proved that for any finite non-abelian group \(G\), the number of non-isomorphic countable subdirect powers was uncountable, and is otherwise countable for finite abelian groups. In this talk, we take a tour through the case for some other algebras such as finite commutative semigroups with the aim of giving a McKenzie-like result, determining precisely those \(S\) which have countably many non-isomorphic subdirect powers.