Orthocomplemented difference lattices in association with generalized rings

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Orthocomplemented difference lattices (ODLs) are orthocomplemented lattices endowed with an additional operation of "abstract symmetric difference". In studying ODLs as universal algebras or instances of quantum logics, several results have been obtained (see the references at the end of this paper where the explicite link with orthomodularity is discussed, too). Since the ODLs are "nearly Boolean", a natural question arises whether there are "nearly Boolean rings" associated with ODLs. In this paper we find such an association -we introduce some difference ring-like algebras (the DRAs) that allow for a natural one-to-one correspondence with the ODLs. The DRAs are defined by only a few rather plausible axioms. The axioms guarantee, among others, that a DRA is a group and that the association with ODLs agrees, for the subrings of DRAs, with the famous Stone (Boolean ring) correspondence.