Algebraic structure tree

Written by Ryan Hendrickson, Eric B last updated

Some classes of algebraic structure are given special names based on the properties of their sets and operations. These terms grew organically over the history of modern mathematics, so the overall list of names is a bit arbitrary (and in a few cases, some authors will use slightly different assumptions about certain terms, such as whether a semiring needs to have identity elements). This list is intended to clarify the situation to someone who has some familiarity with what an algebraic structure is, but not a lot of experience with using these specific terms.

One set, one binary operation

One set, two binary operations

For the below, we'll use and to denote the two binary operations in question. It might help to think of as "like addition" and as "like multiplication", but be careful—in most of these structures, properties of addition and multiplication like commutativity won't be assumed!

  • Ringoid assumes only that distributes over —in other words, and .
    • A semiring is a ringoid where both and define semigroups.
      • An additive_semiring is a semiring where is commutative.
        • A rig is an additive semiring where has an identity element. (It's almost a ring! It's just missing negatives.)
          • A ring is a rig where every element has an inverse element under . (Some authors also require to have an identity to call the structure a ring.)
            • A ring with unity is a ring where has an identity. (Some authors just use the word "ring" for this; others use variations like "unit ring".)
              • A division_ring is a ring with unity where every element (except for the identity of ) has an inverse element under .
                • A field is a division ring where is commutative.
    • A lattice is a ringoid where both and define semilattices, and satisfy the absorption laws (). (While we'll continue to use and here, the two operations of a lattice are almost always denoted with and .)