Abstract algebraic logic is a theory that provides general tools for the algebraic study of arbitrary propositional logics. According to this theory, every logic ${\cal L}$ is associated with a matrix semantics $Mo{d^{\rm{*}}}{\cal L}$. This article is a contribution to the systematic study of the so-called truth sets of the matrices in $Mo{d^{\rm{*}}}{\cal L}$. In particular, we show that the fact that the truth sets of $Mo{d^{\rm{*}}}{\cal L}$ can be defined by means of equations with universally quantified parameters is captured by an order-theoretic property of the Leibniz operator restricted to deductive filters of ${\cal L}$. This result was previously known for equational definability without parameters. Similarly, it was known that the truth sets of $Mo{d^{\rm{*}}}{\cal L}$ are implicitly definable if and only if the Leibniz operator is injective on deductive filters of ${\cal L}$ over every algebra. However, it was an open problem whether the injectivity of the Leibniz operator transfers from the theories of ${\cal L}$ to its deductive filters over arbitrary algebras. We show that this is the case for logics expressed in a countable language, and that it need not be true in general. Finally we consider an intermediate condition on the truth sets in $Mo{d^{\rm{*}}}{\cal L}$ that corresponds to the order-reflection of the Leibniz operator.

This paper presents a unified framework that explains and extends the already successful applications of the Leibniz operator, the Suszko operator, and the Tarski operator in recent developments in abstract algebraic logic. To this end, we refine Czelakowski’s notion of an S-compatibility operator, and introduce the notion of coherent family of S-compatibility operators, for a sentential logic S. The notion of coherence is a restricted property of commutativity with inverse images by surjective homomorphisms, which is satisfied by both the Leibniz and the Suszko operators. We generalize several constructions and results already existing for the mentioned operators; in particular, the well-known classes of algebras associated with a logic through each of them, and the notions of full generalized model of a logic and a special kind of S-filters (which generalizes the less-known notion of Leibniz filter). We obtain a General Correspondence Theorem, extending the well-known one from the theory of protoalgebraic logics to arbitrary logics and to more general operators, and strengthening its formulation. We apply the general results to the Leibniz and the Suszko operators, and obtain several characterizations of the main classes of logics in the Leibniz hierarchy by the form of their full generalized models, by old and new properties of the Leibniz operator, and by the behaviour of the Suszko operator. Some of these characterizations complete or extend known ones, for some classes in the hierarchy, thus offering an integrated approach to the Leibniz hierarchy that uncovers some new, nice symmetries.