Volume 2011, Issue 1 474375
Research Article
Open Access

Rough Filters in BL-Algebras

Lida Torkzadeh

Lida Torkzadeh

Department of Mathematics, Islamic Azad University, Kerman Branch, Kerman, Iran iau.ac.ir

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Shokoofeh Ghorbani

Corresponding Author

Shokoofeh Ghorbani

Department of Mathematics of Bam, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran uk.ac.ir

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First published: 09 June 2011
Citations: 5
Academic Editor: Young Bae Jun

Abstract

We apply the rough set theory to BL-algebras. As a generalization of filters (subalgebras) of BL-algebras, we introduce the notion of rough filters (subalgebras) of BL-algebras and investigate some of their properties.

1. Introduction

The rough sets theory introduced by Pawlak [13] has often proved to be an excellent mathematical tool for the analysis of a vague description of objects (called actions in decision problems). Many different problems can be addressed by rough sets theory. During the last few years this formalism has been approached as a tool used in connection with many different areas of research. There have been investigations of the relations between rough sets theory and the Dempster-Shafer theory and between rough sets and fuzzy sets. Rough sets theory has also provided the necessary formalism and ideas for the development of some propositional machine learning systems. It has also been used for, among many others, knowledge representation; data mining; dealing with imperfect data; reducing knowledge representation and for analyzing attribute dependencies. The notions of rough relations and rough functions are based on rough sets theory and can be applied as a theoretical basis for rough controllers, among others. An algebraic approach to rough sets has been given by Iwinski [1]. Rough set theory is applied to semigroups and groups (see [2, 3]). In 1994, Biswas and Nanda [4] introduced and discussed the concept of rough groups and rough subgroups. Jun [5] applied rough set theory to BCK-algebras. Recently, Rasouli [6] introduced and studied the notion of roughness in MV-algebras.

BL-algebras are the algebraic structures for Hàjek Basic Logic (BL-logic) [7], arising from the continuous triangular norms (t-norms), familiar in the frameworks of fuzzy set theory. The language of propositional Hàjek basic logic [7] contains the binary connectives ∘, ⇒ and the constant .

Axioms of BL are as follows:
  • (A1) (φψ)⇒((ψω)⇒(φω)),

  • (A2) (φψ)⇒φ,

  • (A3) (φψ)⇒(ψφ),

  • (A4) (φ∘(φψ))⇒(ψ∘(ψφ)),

  • (A5a) (φ⇒(ψω))⇒((φψ)⇒ω),

  • (A5b) ((φψ)⇒ω)⇒(φ⇒(ψω)),

  • (A6) ((φψ)⇒ω)⇒(((ψφ)⇒ω)⇒ω),

  • (A7) .

BL-algebras rise as Lindenbaum algebras from the above logical axioms in a similar manner that Boolean algebras or MV-algebras do from Classical logic or Lukasiewicz logic, respectively. MV-algebras are BL-algebras while the converse, in general, is not true. Indeed, BL-algebras with involutory complement are MV-algebras. Moreover, Boolean algebras are MV-algebras and MV-algebras with idempotent product are Boolean algebras. Filters theory plays an important role in studying these logical algebras. From logical point of view, various filters correspond to various sets of provable formula.

In this paper, we apply the rough set theory to BL-algebras, and we introduce the notion of (lower) upper rough subalgebras and (lower) upper rough filters of BL-algebras and obtain some related results.

2. Preliminaries

Definition 2.1. A BL-algebra is an algebra (L, ∧, ∨, *, →, 0,1) with four binary operations ∧, ∨, *, → and two constants 0,1 such that:

  • (BL1) (L, ∧, ∨, 0,1) is a bounded lattice,

  • (BL2) (L, *, 1) is a commutative monoid,

  • (BL3) cab if and only if a*cb, for all a, b, cL, (i.e., * and → form an adjoint pair),

  • (BL4) ab = a*(ab),

  • (BL5) (ab)∨(ba) = 1.

Examples of BL-algebras [7] are t-algebras ([0,1], ∧, ∨, *t, →t, 0,1), where ([0,1], ∧, ∨, 0,1) is the usual lattice on [0,1] and *t is a continuous t-norm, whereas →t is the corresponding residuum.

If (L, ∧, ∨,, 0,1) is a Boolean algebra, then (L, ∧, ∨, *, →, 0,1) is a BL-algebra where the operation * coincides with ∧ and xy = xy, for all x, yL.

From now (L, ∧, ∨, *, →, 0,1) or simply L is a BL-algebra.

A BL-algebra is called an MV-algebra if ¬¬x = x, for all xL, where ¬x = x → 0.

A BL-algebra is nontrivial if 0 ≠ 1. For any BL-algebra L, (L, ∧, ∨, 0,1) is a bounded distributive lattice. We denote the set of natural numbers by N and define a0 = 1 and an = an−1*a, for nN∖{0}. The order of aL, a ≠ 1, in symbols ord(a) is the smallest nN such that an = 0; if no such n exists, then ord(a) = .

Lemma 2.2 (see [7]–[11].)In any BL-algebra L, the following properties hold for all x, y, zL:

  • (1)

    xy if and only if xy = 1,

  • (2)

    x → (yz) = (x*y) → z = y → (xz),

  • (3)

    if xy, then yzxz and zxzy,

  • (4)

    yx ≤ (zy)→(zx) and xy ≤ (yz)→(xz),

  • (5)

    xy implies x*zy*z,

  • (6)

    1 → x = x, xx = 1, xyx, x → 1 = 1, 0 → x = 1,

  • (7)

    (xy)→(xz) = (xy) → z,

  • (8)

    xy ≤ (x*z)→(y*z),

  • (9)

    xyx and x*yx, y,

  • (10)

    xy = [(xy) → y]∧[(yx) → x].

For any BL-algebra L, B(L) denotes the Boolean algebra of all complemented elements in lattice of L.

Proposition 2.3 (see [7], [11].)For eL, the following are equivalent:

  • (i)

    eB(L),

  • (ii)

    e*e = e and e = e−−,

  • (iii)

    e*e = e and ee = e,

  • (iv)

    ee = 1,

  • (v)

    (ex) → e = e, for every xL.

Hàjek [7] defined a filter of a BL-algebra L to be a nonempty subset F of L such that (i) if a, bF implies a*bF and (ii) if aF, ab, then bF. Turunen [8] defined a deductive system of a BL-algebra L to be a nonempty subset D of L such that (i) 1 ∈ D and (ii) xD and xyD imply yD. Note that a subset F of a BL-algebra L is a deductive system of L if and only if F is a filter of L [8].

Let U denote a nonempty set of objects called the univers, and let θU × U be an equivalence relation on U. The pair (U; θ) is called a Pawlak approximation space. The equivalence relation θ partitions the set U into disjoint subsets. Let U/θ denote the quotient set consisting of all the equivalence classes of θ. The empty set and the elements of U/θ are called elementary sets. A finite union of elementary sets, that is, the union of one or more elementary sets, is called a composed set [12]. The family of all composed sets is denoted by Com(Apr). It is a subalgebra of the Boolean algebra 2U formed by the power set of U. A set which is a union of elementary sets is called a definable set [12]. The family of all definable sets is denoted by Def(Apr). For a finite universe, the family of definable sets is the same as the family of composed sets. A Pawlak approximation space defines uniquely a topological space (U; Def(Apr)), in which Def(Apr) is the family of all open and closed sets [13]. In connection to rough set theory there exist two views. The operator-oriented view interprets rough set theory as an extension of set theory with two additional unary operators. Under such a view, lower and upper approximations are related to the interior and closure operators in topological spaces, the necessity and possibility operators in modal logic, and lower and upper approximations in interval structures. The set-oriented view focuses on the interpretation and characterization of members of rough sets. Both operator-oriented and set-oriented views are useful in the understanding and application of the theory of rough sets.

Definition 2.4. For an approximation space (U; θ), by a rough approximation in (U; θ) we mean a mapping Apr : P(U) → P(U) × P(U) defined for every XP(U) by , where

(2.1)
is called a lower rough approximation of X in (U; θ), whereas is called an upper rough approximation of X in (U; θ).

Let F be a filter of a BL-algebra L. Define relation ≡F on L as follows:
(2.2)
Then ≡F is a congruence relation on L. L/F denotes the set of all congruence classes of ≡F, that is, L/F = {[x] F : xL}, thus L/F is a BL-algebra.

3. Lower and Upper Approximations in BL-Algebras

Definition 3.1. Let L be a BL-algebra and F a filter of L. For any nonempty subset X of L, the sets

(3.1)
are called, respectively, the lower and upper approximations of the set X with respect to the filter F. Therefore, when U = L and θ is the induced congruence relation by filter F, then we use the pair (L, F) instead of the approximation space (U, θ). Also, in this case we use the symbols and instead of and .

Proposition 3.2. Let (L, F) be an approximation space and X, YL. Then the following hold:

  • (1)

    ,

  • (2)

    ,

  • (3)

    ,

  • (4)

    ,

  • (5)

    ,

  • (6)

    ,

  • (7)

    ,

  • (8)

    ,

  • (9)

    if X, then ,

  • (10)

    if XL, then .

Proof. The proof is similar to the proof of Theorem  2.1 of [14].

Proposition 3.3. Let (L, F) be an approximation space. Then, is a closure operator and is an interior operator.

Proof. Let X be an arbitrary subset of L.

  • (i)

    By Proposition 3.2 part (1), we have .

  • (ii)

    We will show that . Suppose that . By Definition 3.1, we have . Hence there exists such that [x] F = [y] F. By Definition 3.1, [y] FX, and so we get that [x] FX. Hence and then . By part (1) of Proposition 3.2, we have .

  • (iii)

    Suppose that XY. We will show that . Let . Then [x] FX. Since XY, we get that [x] FY, that is, . Analogously, we can prove that is an interior operator.

Definition 3.4. (L, F) is an approximation space and XL. X is called definable with respect to F, if .

Proposition 3.5. Let (L, F) be an approximation space. Then , L, and [x] F are definable respect to F.

Proof. The proof is straightforward.

Proposition 3.6. Let (L, F) be an approximation space. If F = {1}, then every subset of L is definable.

Proof. Let X be an arbitrary subset of L. We have

(3.2)
for all xL. We get that
(3.3)
Hence X is definable.

Let X and Y be nonempty subsets of L. Then we define two sets
(3.4)
If either X or Y is empty, then we define X*Y = and XY = . Clearly, X*Y = Y*X, for every X, YL. X*Y and XY are called, respectively, Minkowski product and Minkowski arrow. However, Minkowski arrow is not the residuum of Minkowski product.

Lemma 3.7. Let (L, F) be an approximation space and X, YL. Then the following hold:

  • (1)

    ,

  • (2)

    .

Proof. (1) Let , and so there exist and such that z = x*y. We have [x] FX and [y] FY. There exist aX and bY such that [x] F = [a] F and [y] F = [b] F. We get that a*bX*Y such that [a*b] F = [x*y] F. Hence [x*y] F∩(X*Y) ≠ , that is, .

Similarly, we can prove (2).

Definition 3.8. Let (L, F) be an approximation space. A nonempty subset S of L is called an upper (resp., a lower) rough subalgebra (or filter) of L, if the upper (resp., the lower) approximation of S is a subalgebra (or filter) of L. If S is both an upper and a lower rough subalgebra (or filter) of L, we say S is a rough subalgebra (or filter) of L.

Proposition 3.9. Let (L, F) be an approximation space. If S is a subalgebra of L, then S is an upper rough subalgebra of L.

Proof. We will show that is a subalgebra of L. Since 0,1 ∈ S, 0 ∈ [0] F and 1 ∈ [1] F, then [0] FS and [1] FS. Hence . Taking X = Y = S in Lemma 3.7, by S is a subalgebra of L, we obtain

(3.5)
Hence S is an upper rough subalgebra.

Let (L, F) be an approximation space and S a subalgebra of L. The following example shows that S may not be a lower rough subalgebra of L in general.

Example 3.10. Let L = {0, a, b, c, d, 1}, where 0 < d < c < a, b < 1. Define * and → as follow:

(3.6)
Then (L, ∧, ∨, *, →, 0,1) is a BL-algebra. It is easy to check that F = {1, b} is a filter of L and S = {0, a, 1} is a subalgebra of L. Since [1] F = F ⊈ S, then S is not be a lower rough subalgebra of L.

Theorem 3.11. Let (L, F) be an approximation space and X a nonempty subset of L. Then the following hold:

  • (i)

    XF if and only if ,

  • (ii)

    FX if and only if .

Proof. (i) Let XF and . Then [z] FX, and so there exists xX such that [x] F = [z] F. Since XF, then [x] F = F. So zF, that is, . Now let zF. Then [z] F = F and so [z] FX = FX = X. Thus , and hence .

The converse follows from Proposition 3.2 part (1).

(ii) Let FX and xF. Then [x] F = FX, and so . Therefore .

Theorem 3.12. Let (L, F) be an approximation space and J a filter of L. Then the following hold:

  • (1)

    FJ if and only if ,

  • (2)

    ,

  • (3)

    .

Proof. (1) Suppose that FJ. By Proposition 3.2 part (1), and . Now let . Then [x] FJ and so there exists yJ such that [x] F = [y] F. We get that xy, yxF. Since FJ, J is a filter and yJ, then xJ, that is, . Hence . Similarly, we can obtain . Conversely, suppose that and xF. We have 1 ∈ [x] FJ. Hence . Thus . We get that FJ.

(2) The result follows from (1).

(3) Let xF. Then 1 ∈ FJ = [x] FJ and so . Therefore .

Lemma 3.13. Let L be linearly ordered and F a filter of L. If xy and [x] F ≠ [y] F, then for each t ∈ [x] F and s ∈ [y] F, ts.

Proof. Let there exist t ∈ [x] F and s ∈ [y] F such that s < t. Then txsx, and also txF. So sxF. By xy we get that ysxs, also we have ysF, and so xsF. Thus s ∈ [x] F∩[y] F, that is, [x] F = [y] F, it is a contradiction. Thus for each t ∈ [x] F and s ∈ [y] F, ts.

Theorem 3.14. Let (L, F) be an approximation space and J a filter of L. Then the following hold.

  • (1)

    If FJ, then J is a rough filter of L.

  • (2)

    If JF, then J is an upper rough filter of L.

  • (3)

    If L is linearly ordered, then J is an upper rough filter of L.

Proof. (1) The proof follows from Theorem 3.12 part (1).

(2) The proof is easy by Theorem 3.11 part (i).

(3) Let . Then it is easy to see that . If xy and , then [x] FJ and so there is tJ such that [x] F = [t] F. If [x] F = [y] F, we get that . If [x] F ≠ [y] F, then by Lemma 3.13 we obtain ty. So by tJ we get that yJ, that is, .

If X is a nonempty subset of a BL-algebra L, we let ¬X = {¬xxX}. It is easy to see that for every nonempty subset X, Y of L, XY implies that ¬X⊆¬Y.

Proposition 3.15. Let F be a filter of L and X a nonempty subset of L. Then .

Proof. Let . Then there is such that z = ¬t and so [t] FX. Thus there exists hX such that [t] F = [h] F, hence [z] F = [¬t] F = [¬h] F. Also hX implies that ¬h ∈ ¬X and so [z] F∩¬X = [¬h] F∩¬X ≠ . Therefore and hence .

Remark 3.16. (1) We cannot replace the inclusion symbol by an equal sign in Proposition 3.15. Consider filter F = {1, b} in Example 3.10. Let subset X = {0, c} of L; we have ¬X = {1,0}, and . Therefore, .

(2) We can show that Proposition 3.15 may not be true for . Consider Example 3.10, filter F = {1, b} and subset X = {0, a, c} of L. We can get that ¬X = {0,1}, and . Therefore, . Also by considering X = {1} we can check that and . Thus .

Let L be a BL-algebra. An element a of L is said to be regular if and only if ¬¬a = a. The set of all regular elements of L is denoted by Reg(L). The set of regular elements is also denoted by MV(L) in [10] where it is proved that it is the largest sub MV-algebra of L.

Lemma 3.17. Let F be a filter of L and XL. Then,

  • (i)

    ,

  • (ii)

    .

Proof. (i) Let . Then [z] F∩¬X and ¬¬z = z and so there exists xX such that [¬x] F = [z] F. Thus we have z = ¬¬z = ¬(¬z) and [¬z] F∩¬¬X = [¬¬x] F∩¬¬X and hence . Therefore, , and this implies that .

(ii) Let . Then ¬¬z = z and [z] F∩¬(X∩Reg(L)) ≠ . So there exists xX∩Reg(L) such that [¬x] F = [z] F and ¬¬x = x. We get that z = ¬(¬z) and [¬z] FX = [x] FX and so . Therefore, .

An element a of L is said to be dense if and only if ¬a = 0. We denote by Ds(L) the set of the dense elements of L. Ds(L) is a filter of L [15].

Lemma 3.18. Let F be a filter of L. Then .

Proof. Let . Then [z] FDs(L) ≠ and so there is t ∈ [z] F such that ¬t = 0. Thus [0] F = [¬t] F = [¬z] F and hence ¬¬zF. Also since Ds(L) is a filter of L, then by Theorem 3.12 part (3), .

Lemma 3.19. Let F be a filter of L and X a nonempty set of L. Then X is definable respect to F if and only if or .

Proof. Suppose that X is definable. Then and so . Conversely, let . We show that . We have . Now let xX. and z ∈ [x] F. Then [z] FX = [x] FX and so . Therefore . If , then we show that . Let . Then [x] FX and so there is zX such that [x] F = [z] F. By hypothesis we get that [z] FX, hence xX. Therefore . Since , then .

By Theorem 3.12 part (1) and Lemma 3.19 we have the following:

Corollary 3.20. Let F and J be two filters of L. Then J is definable respect to F if and only if FJ.

Let X and Y be two nonempty subsets of L. Then we define
(3.7)
If either X or Y are empty, then we define XY = . If A and B are two filters of L, then it is clear that AB is the smallest filter containing of A and B. For any subsets X, Y, Z of L we have XY = YX and (XY)⊙Z = X⊙(YZ). It is easy to see that , for any filter E and F of L and nonempty subset X of L. Since , for nonempty subsets X, Y of L and filter F of L, then we can conclude that .

Proposition 3.21. Let F be a filter of L and X, Y be nonempty subsets of L. Then

  • (i)

    ,

  • (ii)

    If X, YF, then ,

  • (iii)

    If L is linearly ordered, then .

Proof. (i) Let . Then [z] F∩(XY) ≠ and so there is tXY such that [z] F = [t] F. Hence there are xX and yY such that x*yt. On the other hand, [z] F = [t] F implies that tzF, then there is fF such that tfz. By hypothesis we can conclude that x*ytfz, and hence x*(y*f) ≤ z. Also by Lemma 2.2, we have fy*fy and fyy*f, thus fF implies that (y*fy) ∈ F and (yy*f) ∈ F. Therefore [y*f] F = [y] F, hence , and also we have . So .

(ii) If X, YF, then XYF. So by Theorem 3.11. Therefore .

(iii) Let L be linearly ordered and . Then there are and such that h*kz. So [h] FX and [k] FY imply that there are xX and yY such that [x] F = [h] F and [y] F = [k] F. Hence [x*y] F = [h*k] F and we have x*yXY. If [z] F = [h*k] F, then by hypothesis we get that [z] FXY and hence . If [z] F ≠ [h*k] F, then by Lemma 3.13  x*yz and so zXY. Therefore [z] F∩(XY) ≠ , that is, .

Proposition 3.22. Let F be a filter of L and X, Y be nonempty subsets of L. Then

  • (i)

    .

  • (ii)

    If X and Y are definable respect to F, then .

Proof. (i) Let . Then x*yz, for some and . Consider b ∈ [z] F, so there is fF such that zfb. Hence x*yfb, we can obtain that x*(y*f) ≤ b. Thus by hypothesis we have [y*f] F = [y] FY, [x] FX and x*(y*f) ≤ b, hence bXY. Therefore , it implies that .

(ii) Since X and Y are definable respect to F, then and . By part (i), we get that . Therefore .

By the following example, we show that we cannot replace the inclusion symbol by an equal sign in general in the above proposition part (i).

Example 3.23. Let L = {0, a, b, c, d, 1}, where 0 < d, b < a < 1, 0 < d < c < 1. Define * and → as follow:

(3.8)
Then (L, ∧, ∨, *, →, 0,1) is a BL-algebra. It is easy to check that F = {1, c} is a filter of L. By considering subsets X = {a} and Y = {c} of L, we have and . Therefore .

Proposition 3.24. Let F and J be two filters of L and X be a nonempty subset of L. Then

  • (i)

    If XB(L), then ,

  • (ii)

    ,

  • (iii)

    .

Proof. (i) Let . Then [z] FJX and so there is xX such that xzFJ. Thus there are fF and eJ such that f*e*xz, by XB(A), we get that (f*x)*(e*x) ≤ z. Since [f*x] F = [x] F and [e*x] J = [x] J, then we have .

(ii) Let . Then t*sh, for some t, sL such that [t] FX and [s] JX. So [t] FJX and [s] FJX and hence . Thus .

(iii) Let . Then [z] FJX. Since z*zz and [z] F, [z] J⊆[z] FEX, hence .

By Proposition 3.21 part (i) and Proposition 3.24 part (i) we can obtain the following corollary.

Corollary 3.25. Let F and J be two filters of L and X, Y be nonempty subsets of B(L). Then .

Let J and F be two filters of L such that JF and let X be a nonempty subset of L. Then it is easy to see that and . So we have and .

Consider BL-algebra L in Example 3.10. We can see that J = {1, a} and F = {1, b} are two filters of L. Put X = {a, b}. We have and , so . Also and , thus .

By the following proposition we can obtain some conditions that or .

Proposition 3.26. Let F and J be two filters of L and X be a nonempty subset of L. Then

  • (i)

    If XFJ or X is definable respect to J or F, then ,

  • (ii)

    If X is a filter of L containing J and F, then .

Proof. (i) Assume that XFJ. Then by Theorem 3.11 part (i), . If X is definable respect to J, then , and it proves theorem.

(ii) If X is a filter of L containing J and F, then by Theorem 3.12 part (1) .

Proposition 3.27. Let L and L be two BL-algebras and f : LL be a homomorphism. Then

  • (i)

    If X be a nonempty subset of L and F be a filter of L, then ,

  • (ii)

    , for any nonempty subset X of L.

  • (iii)

    Let f be onto, Y be a nonempty subset of L and F a filter of L. If kerfF, then .

Proof. (i) By hypothesis we have

, for some , for some .

(ii) The proof is easy by part (i).

(iii) Let . Then there is such that z = f(t), and so there exists yY such that [t] F = [y] F. Thus by [f(t)] f(F) = [f(y)] f(F) we get that [f(t)] f(F)f(Y) ≠ . Therefore . Now let . Then [z] f(F)f(Y) ≠ . By hypothesis we have hL such that z = f(h), and so there is yY such that [f(h)] f(F) = [f(y)] f(F). Since F is a filter of L and kerfF, then we obtain that [y] F = [h] F. So , hence .

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