Residual finiteness and related properties in monounary algebras and their direct products

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the relationship between direct products of monounary algebras and their components, with respect to the properties of residual finiteness, strong/weak subalgebra separability, and complete separability. For each of these properties P, we give a criterion CP such that a monounary algebra A has property P if and only if it satisfies CP. We also show that for a direct product A×B of monounary algebras, A×B has property P if and only if one of the following is true: either both A and B have property P, or at least one of A or B are backwards-bounded, a special property which dominates direct products and which guarantees all P hold.