Wheel theory

Wheels are a type of algebra where division is always defined. In particular, division by zero is meaningful. The real numbers can be extended to a wheel, as can any commutative ring.

Also the Riemann sphere can be extended to a wheel by adjoining an element , where . The Riemann sphere is an extension of the complex plane by an element , where for any complex . However, is still undefined on the Riemann sphere, but is defined in its extension to a wheel.

The term wheel is inspired by the topological picture of the projective line together with an extra point .[1]

Definition

A wheel is an algebraic structure , satisfying:

Algebra of wheels

Wheels replace the usual division as a binary operator with multiplication, with a unary operator applied to one argument similar (but not identical) to the multiplicative inverse , such that becomes shorthand for , and modifies the rules of algebra such that

If there is an element such that , then we may define negation by and .

Other identities that may be derived are

And, for with and , we get the usual

If negation can be defined as above then the subset is a commutative ring, and every commutative ring is such a subset of a wheel. If is an invertible element of the commutative ring, then . Thus, whenever makes sense, it is equal to , but the latter is always defined, even when .

Wheel of fractions

Let be a commutative ring, and let be a multiplicative submonoid of . Define the congruence relation on via

means that there exist such that .

Define the wheel of fractions of with respect to as the quotient (and denoting the equivalence class containing as ) with the operations

          (additive identity)
          (multiplicative identity)
          (reciprocal operation)
          (addition operation)
          (multiplication operation)

Citations

References


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