For a binary operation , its Cartesian lifting sends lists to the list comprehension , with the right generator varying fastest. On finite lists this preserves associativity but need not preserve commutativity or idempotence, because list order and repeated entries matter.
The full transformation monoid consists of every self-map of , with function composition as its binary operation. For , there are four functions: the identity function , the swap , and the constant functions . Their composition order matters: , whereas . Thus associativity does not imply commutativity.
Figure 1. . The arrow diagrams show each function. The Cayley table reads row , column as , applying first. Only and have inverse elements. The constant functions lose information and satisfy idempotence. Details.
Only and are bijections, and their inverse elements are themselves. They form a two-element group within this monoid. The constant functions instead satisfy and , so they are idempotent elements of a semigroup. Such irreversible transformations explain why the monoid setting is useful even when a group would be too restrictive.
Journal replay 2026-10-14
Reinstalling the complete new images of a committed file-system transaction after a crash. An uncommitted journal payload is ignored. Rewriting the same image has idempotence: repeating it gives the same contents, unlike performing "append four more bytes" again. If recovery itself crashes, retaining the journal until the journal checkpoint is durable allows the same recovery to restart.
The second diagram exhausts the small full-data model. A triple lists in that order; a bit is 1 exactly when the corresponding new record has persisted. Before commit, any of the subsets of journal payload records can be durable, while every final-location triple is 000. After commit, the journal triple is 111, while any of the eight final-location triples can be durable. Retirement adds one state: the live journal is gone and the final-location triple is 111. Thus there are distinct abstract crash states. Waiting for a storage flush without another record reaching persistence does not create an additional state. Retirement is modeled as an atomic change of live-log status: old payload bytes may remain physically present but are no longer part of the live journal.
Figure 1.
All 17 abstract crash states recover to the old or new three-record append under the stated storage flush and atomic storage write assumptions
. Details.
The short correctness argument has three cases. Before commit, final locations are unchanged. With commit, the complete journal payload restores 111 regardless of the current final-location subset. After retirement, 111 is already durable. Each of the six partial final-location triples is repairable because its journal is retained. The enumeration is exhaustive for these records and phase rules; it excludes torn records, dishonest flush completion, media corruption, journal reuse across several file-system transactions and failures of the recovery code. It is a model check, not a measured crash test of ext4.
If for a nonzero eigenvector, idempotence gives . Hence
These are the only possible eigenvalues; either may be absent. In fact decomposes every vector into the image and kernel of , so every idempotent matrix is diagonalizable even when it is not an orthogonal projection.
Suppose the incline is generated by . Repeated distributivity, followed by commutativity and additive idempotence, expresses every element as a finite nonempty sum
No multiplicative identity is assumed: a zero exponent means that the corresponding generator is omitted, and every displayed monomial has at least one factor. Different supports may represent the same element; uniqueness is unnecessary.
Associate to its upward-closed exponent set
If , each monomial of is either equal to, or a multiplicative extension of, a monomial of . It is absorbed by that earlier monomial, and hence by the full sum . Adding the terms of one at a time gives
For equal exponent vectors the first absorption is additive idempotence; for strictly larger vectors it is the incline's multiplicative absorption. Thus the issue is to prove that exponent upsets are well-quasi-ordered by reverse inclusion, not merely to apply Dickson's lemma to individual exponents.
Use the reverse absorption order on the incline:
This is exactly the relation given by the pairs . Indeed, if and , then by additive idempotence, associativity and commutativity. Conversely expresses as , so is one of these pairs.
Additive idempotence gives , hence reflexivity. If and , then
so the relation is transitive. In fact it is antisymmetric as well: and , together with commutativity, imply . Thus the relation is a partial order, and therefore a quasi-order. It is the reverse of the usual join order of an incline; keeping this reversal is essential for the well-quasi-ordering conclusion.
Both operations are order-preserving for this order. If , then by additive idempotence, while distributivity gives . The multiplicative absorption identity also says
Thus multiplying a monomial by another factor moves upward in the reverse absorption order.
For an oriented three-manifold M with prescribed framed boundary endpoints P, the relative Kauffman bracket skein module is the complex vector space generated by properly embedded framed tangles, modulo framed isotopy and the local bracket relations. A crossing resolves with coefficients A and , and adjoining an unknotted circle multiplies by . We now use the full bracket convention: the empty diagram has value one and a circle has value . For a nonempty uncolored link this full bracket is times the reduced bracket used earlier. Fixing this normalization is essential for the quantum dimensions. Gluing compatible boundary pieces composes skeins; disjoint union gives tensor products. With no endpoints this is the Kauffman bracket skein module. Framing is retained, so a Reidemeister-I curl is a framing change rather than an allowed isotopy.
For , the Temperley-Lieb algebra is the skein algebra of a rectangle cylinder with n marked endpoints on each horizontal side, multiplication being vertical stacking. Resolve crossings to get a basis of crossing-free matchings of its endpoints, with every closed circle removed with factor . There are such matchings. Conversely multiplication of these matchings by joining endpoints defines an algebra satisfying the skein relations, which proves their independence. Writing for an adjacent cap-cup and 1 for the n vertical strands gives
Every crossing-free matching other than 1 contains a turnback; removing an outermost cap successively expresses it in these generators. Thus these diagram rules give the usual generator presentation as well.
Put , interpreted as the Laurent sum if its denominator vanishes. Set . These quantum integers satisfy , , and . The Jones-Wenzl idempotent is characterized by identity-matching coefficient one and
Starting with , , set and . Whenever the denominators are nonzero the recursion is
Here is the induction proving its properties. Closing the last strand of gives . Consequently stacking two copies of C, and straightening the middle cap-cup, gives , where . Also . Expanding proves idempotence. The earlier turnbacks are killed by F; the last is killed because the same cap-cup calculation gives and its reflected identity. Only F contributes to the identity matching, with coefficient one.
For completeness, the partial-closure formula used in that induction follows from the recursion itself. Closing the last strand of F gives ; closing the last strand of C straightens its cap-cup to . Hence partial closure of is . Starting at , this proves both the inductive formula and total closure . Finally, any nonidentity matching is in the turnback ideal. If two normalized projectors kill that ideal, multiplying them gives each of them, proving uniqueness. Their normalization also gives absorption of smaller projectors on consecutive substrands. At exceptional A one must check the denominators; the recursion does not assert existence of every projector there.
A positive framing twist of an n-strand projected cable consists of n individual positive curls and positive braid crossings. Each curl contributes . A crossing is , so it acts on as A because the turnback vanishes. This proves the depicted Jones-Wenzl twist eigenvalue identity, including its exponent:
A negative framing twist acts by the inverse scalar.
Choose , with an integer . Then but are nonzero. The projector exists and has trace zero. Pass to the reduced Temperley-Lieb skein theory by setting it to zero, including every diagram containing it. The surviving colors are , with dimensions and twists
Their dimensions are nonzero. The recurrence decomposes into the two orthogonal channels and : the first is the new projector, while its complementary cap-cup idempotent is the latter, with inclusion/projection normalized by the nonzero partial-closure scalar. At the upper endpoint the channel vanishes. Iterating gives a complete decomposition of every tensor power into these colors. A matching between projected colors of different sizes has a turnback on the larger side and vanishes; on the same size only the identity matching survives. Thus their endomorphism spaces are one-dimensional and all matrix blocks split. Applying the recurrence to the decompositions proves the fusion of Jones-Wenzl colors rule
One can verify the induction by multiplying by color 1: both sides satisfy the same adjacent-color recurrence and the same zero boundary at . Taking closures proves . Cups and caps make every color self-dual, so these fusion coefficients are symmetric in all three labels.
We next prove the Kirby color handle-slide identity, rather than assume it. In the annular skein space let be the closure of color b and define the Kirby color . For a fixed color a, choose inclusion/projection maps , for the fusion channels, with and . Bend the a strand with a cup and cap, obtaining
Closing the resulting diagrams and straightening the bent strand gives . Since b is simple, . The symmetric fusion rule supplies all channels of , so their normalized projections are complete. Therefore
To slide an a-colored strand over an -colored component, cut at the slide band and insert the resolution . Carrying the band across that loop bends its two maps into U and V. In each outgoing channel c, the boxed identity replaces the sum over the old loop color b by exactly the new loop weight ; the rest of the diagrams are isotopic as framed ribbons. This proves invariance for fixed a. Summing a with its own weight proves invariance when both surgery components are colored by . The band framing is carried in this argument, as required for a framed handle slide.
We must also show that the stabilization normalization is nonzero. Let be the full bracket of the zero-framed Hopf link with colors i,j. On a fusion channel k, its double braiding has eigenvalue : the full twist of the combined ribbon equals double braiding followed by the two separate twists. Taking the trace gives the balancing identity
For there are only the channels; substitution of their dimensions and twists gives , with a vanished endpoint channel simply omitted. A color-1 meridian therefore acts on the simple color i by that scalar. The annular closures obey , where X is a color-1 core, by the two-channel fusion decomposition. Applying this recurrence to meridians gives the Hopf pairing of Jones-Wenzl colors
Indeed the recurrence is the sine identity with , and its initial values are and the computed . Finite sine orthogonality now gives
For example, orthogonality follows by writing products of sines as differences of cosines and summing the finite geometric series of rth roots of unity; the result is . Thus no degeneracy remains in this pairing.
The Gauss sums of Jones-Wenzl colors are , the evaluations of the plus- and minus-one-framed -colored unknots. Balancing and dimension fusion prove
In the last step , by symmetry of the fusion coefficients. In vector notation this is , with . The matrix and vector are real, and each twist has modulus one, so conjugation gives . Apply H again and use its orthogonality to obtain . Hence neither factor vanishes.
We may use the surgery existence theorem and Kirby calculus: every closed oriented three-manifold has an integral framed-link surgery description, and two descriptions are related by handle slides and insertion/removal of disjoint plus- or minus-one-framed unknots. For an m-component surgery link L let be the signature of its symmetric surgery linking matrix, put , and define the Jones polynomial surgery invariant
A handle slide preserves the colored bracket by the proved identity and changes the linking matrix by congruence, preserving its signature. Adding a disjoint plus-one-framed unknot multiplies the bracket by and changes to , so the net factor is . For a minus-one-framed unknot it is . Kirby calculus therefore proves that the displayed value is a well-defined oriented three-manifold invariant. Our normalization has ; reversing orientation conjugates the value. Its construction uses precisely the bracket and colored projectors underlying the Jones polynomial.
The PDF's displayed inequality uses the relation it purports to define and therefore is not itself a complete definition. The absorption order consistent with that inequality and with the requested result is
This is the reverse of the usual natural order of an incline. We specify it explicitly: using instead would make the finite-generation conclusion false in general.
Idempotence gives , proving reflexivity. If and , then associativity gives
so the relation is transitive. If also , commutativity forces . Thus it is even a partial order. In this order follows because . Absorption says that multiplying a monomial by any additional factors moves it upward in .
Let generate the incline. Distributivity, commutativity and idempotence expand every element into a finite nonempty sum of monomials with . A zero exponent means that factor is omitted; no multiplicative identity is assumed. If componentwise, then by absorption, or by idempotence when .
We prove the needed reverse-inclusion well-quasi-ordering of monomial ideals directly. Upward-closed subsets of form a well-quasi-ordering under reverse inclusion. For these are the tails, plus the empty set, ordered like . For the induction, write an upset as increasing slices in . Their union is an upset with a finite minimal basis by Dickson lemma. To see that finite-basis fact here, is a well-quasi-ordering by the finite product argument above, so its minimal elements cannot form an infinite antichain; every element lies above a minimal one because its lower coordinate box is finite. All basis elements of the union appear by some finite slice, so the slices eventually stabilize.
Encode by the finite word of slices before stabilization and its final slice. By the finite-word theorem proved in the other alternative, and finite product closure, these encodings are a well-quasi-ordering with slice comparisons given by reverse inclusion. For two comparable encodings, let the earlier pre-stabilization slice match the later slice , where . Then
Beyond the earlier stabilization index, its final slice contains the later final slice and hence every later slice. Therefore . This proves the induction, including empty slices and the empty upset.
For an incline element , choose a finite exponent support of a sum representing it and put . Given an infinite sequence of elements, the just-proved result supplies with . Every monomial in the chosen sum for is therefore absorbed by a monomial in the sum for . Adding these absorptions gives , even if the incline has further identities between terms. Hence
The order direction matters. On the positive integers take and multiplication to be ordinary addition of integers. This is an incline generated by . Its usual natural order is the reverse of the ordinary numerical order, and the sequence is bad in that order. Its reverse absorption order is the ordinary numerical order, consistent with the theorem above.
For an oriented three-manifold M with prescribed framed boundary endpoints P, the relative Kauffman bracket skein module is the complex vector space generated by properly embedded framed tangles, modulo framed isotopy and the local bracket relations. A crossing resolves with coefficients A and , and adjoining an unknotted circle multiplies by . We now use the full bracket convention: the empty diagram has value one and a circle has value . For a nonempty uncolored link this full bracket is times the reduced bracket used earlier. Fixing this normalization is essential for the quantum dimensions. Gluing compatible boundary pieces composes skeins; disjoint union gives tensor products. With no endpoints this is the Kauffman bracket skein module. Framing is retained, so a Reidemeister-I curl is a framing change rather than an allowed isotopy.
For , the Temperley-Lieb algebra is the skein algebra of a rectangle cylinder with n marked endpoints on each horizontal side, multiplication being vertical stacking. Resolve crossings to get a basis of crossing-free matchings of its endpoints, with every closed circle removed with factor . There are such matchings. Conversely multiplication of these matchings by joining endpoints defines an algebra satisfying the skein relations, which proves their independence. Writing for an adjacent cap-cup and 1 for the n vertical strands gives
Every crossing-free matching other than 1 contains a turnback; removing an outermost cap successively expresses it in these generators. Thus these diagram rules give the usual generator presentation as well.
Put , interpreted as the Laurent sum if its denominator vanishes. Set . These quantum integers satisfy , , and . The Jones-Wenzl idempotent is characterized by identity-matching coefficient one and
Starting with , , set and . Whenever the denominators are nonzero the recursion is
Here is the induction proving its properties. Closing the last strand of gives . Consequently stacking two copies of C, and straightening the middle cap-cup, gives , where . Also . Expanding proves idempotence. The earlier turnbacks are killed by F; the last is killed because the same cap-cup calculation gives and its reflected identity. Only F contributes to the identity matching, with coefficient one.
For completeness, the partial-closure formula used in that induction follows from the recursion itself. Closing the last strand of F gives ; closing the last strand of C straightens its cap-cup to . Hence partial closure of is . Starting at , this proves both the inductive formula and total closure . Finally, any nonidentity matching is in the turnback ideal. If two normalized projectors kill that ideal, multiplying them gives each of them, proving uniqueness. Their normalization also gives absorption of smaller projectors on consecutive substrands. At exceptional A one must check the denominators; the recursion does not assert existence of every projector there.
A positive framing twist of an n-strand projected cable consists of n individual positive curls and positive braid crossings. Each curl contributes . A crossing is , so it acts on as A because the turnback vanishes. This proves the depicted Jones-Wenzl twist eigenvalue identity, including its exponent:
A negative framing twist acts by the inverse scalar.
Choose , with an integer . Then but are nonzero. The projector exists and has trace zero. Pass to the reduced Temperley-Lieb skein theory by setting it to zero, including every diagram containing it. The surviving colors are , with dimensions and twists
Their dimensions are nonzero. The recurrence decomposes into the two orthogonal channels and : the first is the new projector, while its complementary cap-cup idempotent is the latter, with inclusion/projection normalized by the nonzero partial-closure scalar. At the upper endpoint the channel vanishes. Iterating gives a complete decomposition of every tensor power into these colors. A matching between projected colors of different sizes has a turnback on the larger side and vanishes; on the same size only the identity matching survives. Thus their endomorphism spaces are one-dimensional and all matrix blocks split. Applying the recurrence to the decompositions proves the fusion of Jones-Wenzl colors rule
One can verify the induction by multiplying by color 1: both sides satisfy the same adjacent-color recurrence and the same zero boundary at . Taking closures proves . Cups and caps make every color self-dual, so these fusion coefficients are symmetric in all three labels.
We next prove the Kirby color handle-slide identity, rather than assume it. In the annular skein space let be the closure of color b and define the Kirby color . For a fixed color a, choose inclusion/projection maps , for the fusion channels, with and . Bend the a strand with a cup and cap, obtaining
Closing the resulting diagrams and straightening the bent strand gives . Since b is simple, . The symmetric fusion rule supplies all channels of , so their normalized projections are complete. Therefore
To slide an a-colored strand over an -colored component, cut at the slide band and insert the resolution . Carrying the band across that loop bends its two maps into U and V. In each outgoing channel c, the boxed identity replaces the sum over the old loop color b by exactly the new loop weight ; the rest of the diagrams are isotopic as framed ribbons. This proves invariance for fixed a. Summing a with its own weight proves invariance when both surgery components are colored by . The band framing is carried in this argument, as required for a framed handle slide.
We must also show that the stabilization normalization is nonzero. Let be the full bracket of the zero-framed Hopf link with colors i,j. On a fusion channel k, its double braiding has eigenvalue : the full twist of the combined ribbon equals double braiding followed by the two separate twists. Taking the trace gives the balancing identity
For there are only the channels; substitution of their dimensions and twists gives , with a vanished endpoint channel simply omitted. A color-1 meridian therefore acts on the simple color i by that scalar. The annular closures obey , where X is a color-1 core, by the two-channel fusion decomposition. Applying this recurrence to meridians gives the Hopf pairing of Jones-Wenzl colors
Indeed the recurrence is the sine identity with , and its initial values are and the computed . Finite sine orthogonality now gives
For example, orthogonality follows by writing products of sines as differences of cosines and summing the finite geometric series of rth roots of unity; the result is . Thus no degeneracy remains in this pairing.
The Gauss sums of Jones-Wenzl colors are , the evaluations of the plus- and minus-one-framed -colored unknots. Balancing and dimension fusion prove
In the last step , by symmetry of the fusion coefficients. In vector notation this is , with . The matrix H and vector d are real, and each twist has modulus one, so conjugation gives . Apply H again and use its orthogonality to obtain . Hence neither factor vanishes.
We may use the surgery existence theorem and Kirby calculus: every closed oriented three-manifold has an integral framed-link surgery description, and two descriptions are related by handle slides and insertion/removal of disjoint plus- or minus-one-framed unknots. For an m-component surgery link L let be the signature of its symmetric surgery linking matrix, put , and define the Jones polynomial surgery invariant
A handle slide preserves the colored bracket by the proved identity and changes the linking matrix by congruence, preserving its signature. Adding a disjoint plus-one-framed unknot multiplies the bracket by and changes to , so the net factor is . For a minus-one-framed unknot it is . Kirby calculus therefore proves that the displayed value is a well-defined oriented three-manifold invariant. Our normalization has ; reversing orientation conjugates the value. Its construction uses precisely the bracket and colored projectors underlying the Jones polynomial.
For real projective 3-space the surgery diagram is a single unknot of framing two. Thus , , and its colored evaluation is . Since , the explicit answer is
The denominator is nonzero by the proved Gauss-sum identity. For instance at the twists are , the squared dimensions are both one, and the numerator vanishes, so this normalized invariant is zero for at that level.
Use the natural partial order
The paper's shorthand specifies the join order: more formally, means for some , which is equivalent to the displayed condition by idempotence. Associativity, commutativity and idempotence make addition the join operation. Distributivity makes multiplication monotone, while absorption gives and .
Let generate the incline. Distributivity writes every element as a nonempty finite join of monomials
There is no assumed multiplicative identity: an exponent zero means omit that factor, and at least one factor remains. If coordinatewise, absorption gives . If the two vectors are equal the conclusion is immediate; otherwise multiply by the additional factors and apply absorption. For a polynomial with finite exponent support , put , its upward closure. If , every monomial in is below some monomial in , and consequently the join represented by is below the join represented by .
We prove the reverse-inclusion well-quasi-ordering of monomial ideals, often called Maclagan's theorem, in the equivalent form that upward-closed subsets of are well-quasi-ordered by reverse inclusion. Include the empty subset. For , these are the tails and the empty set, corresponding to in its usual well-order.
Induct on . For an upward-closed , its slices increase with . Their union is upward closed and has finitely many minimal elements by the Dickson lemma; all those elements have appeared by some finite slice. Thus the slices eventually stabilize. Encode by the finite word of its pre-stabilization slices and its final stable slice. By the induction hypothesis, the slice order given by reverse inclusion is a well-quasi-ordering. The Higman lemma and finite product closure of well-quasi-orderings make these word-and-tail encodings well-quasi-ordered.
For a good pair of encodings , an increasing subsequence map satisfies at every pre-stabilization position of , and the final slice of contains the final slice of . Since and the slices increase, before stabilization. Afterwards the final-slice comparison also gives . Hence , proving the induction. The use of Higman lemma is essential: finite-subset reverse domination does not preserve an arbitrary well-quasi-order, as the Rado order shows.
Given any infinite sequence of incline elements, choose a finite monomial support for each. The result just proved gives with , hence . Every finitely generated incline is therefore well-quasi-ordered by its reversed natural order.
Every subset is contained in its closure, giving . On the other hand, is already closed by its definition as an intersection of closed sets. It is therefore one of the closed supersets used when taking its own closure, so . Hence
This is the idempotence of the closure operation.
Idempotence concerns applying an operation to the same whole value. It says more than saying that the equal-entry pairs are unchanged. Choose the idempotent binary operation min. Then
More generally, a finite list of length paired with itself produces entries, so length alone contradicts idempotence when . Therefore
Put . By distributivity, and . Consequently,
Here we used associativity, distributivity, and idempotence of set intersection and set union. The equality holds for every , so : is an idempotent function.