Transformations of Discrete Closure Systems

Discrete systems such as sets, monoids, groups are familiar categories. The internal structure of the latter two is defined by an algebraic operator. In this paper we concentrate on discrete systems that are characterized by unary operators; these include choice operators σ, encountered in economics and social theory, and closure operators φ, encountered in discrete geometry and data mining. Because, for many arbitrary operators α, it is easy to induce a closure structure on the base set, closure operators play a central role in discrete systems. Our primary interest is in functions f that map power sets 2U into power sets 2U ′ , which are called transformations. Functions over continuous domains are usually characterized in terms of open sets. When the domains are discrete, closed sets seem more appropriate. In particular, we consider monotone transformations which are “continuous”, or “closed”. These can be used to establish criteria for asserting that “the closure of a transformed image under f is equal to the transformed image of the closure”. Finally, we show that the categories MCont and MClo of closure systems with morphisms given by the monotone continuous transformations and monotone closed transformations respectively have concrete direct products. And the supercategory Clo of MClo whose morphisms are just the closed transformations is shown to be cartesian closed.