This paper concerns free function theory. Free maps are free analogs of analytic functions in several complex variables and are defined in terms of freely noncommuting variables. A function of $g$ noncommuting variables is a function on $g$-tuples of square matrices of all sizes that respects direct sums and simultaneous conjugation. Examples of such maps include noncommutative polynomials, noncommutative rational functions, and convergent noncommutative power series.

In sharp contrast to the existing literature in free analysis, this article investigates free maps with involution, free analogs of real analytic functions. To get a grip on these, techniques and tools from invariant theory are developed and applied to free analysis. Here is a sample of the results obtained. A characterization of polynomial free maps via properties of their finite-dimensional slices is presented and then used to establish power series expansions for analytic free maps about scalar and non-scalar points; the latter are series of generalized polynomials for which an invariant-theoretic characterization is given. Furthermore, an inverse and implicit function theorem for free maps with involution is obtained. Finally, with a selection of carefully chosen examples it is shown that free maps with involution do not exhibit strong rigidity properties enjoyed by their involution-free counterparts.

Recent research of the author has studied edge-labelled directed trees under a natural multiplication operation. The class of all such trees (with a fixed labelling alphabet) has an algebraic interpretation, as a free object in the class of adequate semigroups. We consider here a natural subclass of these trees, defined by placing a restriction on edge orientations, and show that the resulting algebraic structure is a free object in the class of left adequate semigroups. Through this correspondence we establish some structural and algorithmic properties of free left adequate semigroups and monoids, and consequently of the category of all left adequate semigroups.

A Σ-labeled n-poset is an (at most) countable set, labeled in the set Σ, equipped with n partial orders. The collection of all Σ-labeled n-posets is naturally equipped with n binary product operations and nω-ary product operations. Moreover, the ω-ary product operations give rise to nω-power operations. We show that those Σ-labeled n-posets that can be generated from the singletons by the binary and ω-ary product operations form the free algebra on Σ in a variety axiomatizable by an infinite collection of simple equations. When n = 1, this variety coincides with the class of ω-semigroups of Perrin and Pin. Moreover, we show that those Σ-labeled n-posets that can be generated from the singletons by the binary product operations and the ω-power operations form the free algebra on Σ in a related variety that generalizes Wilke's algebras. We also give graph-theoretic characterizations of those n-posets contained in the above free algebras. Our results serve as a preliminary study to a development of a theory of higher dimensional automata and languages on infinitary associative structures.

The notion of \emph{hyperdecidability} has been introduced by the first author as a tool to prove decidability of semidirect products of pseudovarieties of semigroups. In this paper we consider some stronger notions which lead to improved decidability results allowing us in turn to establish the decidability of some iterated semidirect products. Roughly speaking, the decidability of a semidirect product follows from a mild, commonly verified property of the first factor plus the stronger property for all the other factors. A key role in this study is played by intermediate free semigroups (relatively free objects of expanded type lying between relatively free and relatively free profinite objects). As an application of the main results, the decidability of the Krohn--Rhodes (group) complexity is shown to follow from non-algorithmic abstract properties likely to be satisfied by the pseudovariety of all finite aperiodic semigroups, thereby suggesting a new approach to answer (affirmatively) the question as to whether complexity is decidable.

1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: primary 20M05, 20M07, 20M35; secondary 08B20.

A unified study is undertaken of finitely generated varieties HSP () of distributive lattices with unary operations, extending work of Cornish. The generating algebra () is assusmed to be of the form (P; ∧, ∨, 0, 1, {fμ}), where each fμ is an endomorphism or dual endomorphism of (P; ∧, ∨, 0, 1), and the Priestly dual of this lattice is an ordered semigroup N whose elements act by left multiplication to give the maps dual to the operations fμ. Duality theory is fully developed within this framework, into which fit many varieties arising in algebraic logic. Conditions on N are given for the natural and Priestley dualities for HSP () to be essentially the same, so that, inter alia, coproducts in HSP () are enriched D-coproducts.