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Cancellation Property

The article discusses the concept of cancellation property in abstract algebra. It states that an element a in an algebraic structure M has the left cancellation property if a*b = a*c always implies b = c. It has the right cancellation property if b*a = c*a always implies b = c. Cancellation occurs when both left and right cancellation properties hold. Groups and quasigroups are cancellative structures. The positive integers form a cancellative semigroup under addition. Matrix and vector operations generally do not satisfy cancellation.

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618 views3 pages

Cancellation Property

The article discusses the concept of cancellation property in abstract algebra. It states that an element a in an algebraic structure M has the left cancellation property if a*b = a*c always implies b = c. It has the right cancellation property if b*a = c*a always implies b = c. Cancellation occurs when both left and right cancellation properties hold. Groups and quasigroups are cancellative structures. The positive integers form a cancellative semigroup under addition. Matrix and vector operations generally do not satisfy cancellation.

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Cancellation property

en.wikipedia.org

This article is about the extension of 'invertibility' in abstract algebra. For cancellation of terms in an equation or in
elementary algebra, see cancelling out.

In mathematics, the notion of cancellative is a generalization of the notion of invertible.


An element a in a magma (M, ) has the left cancellation property (or is left-cancellative) if for all b and c in M, a
b = a c always implies that b = c.
An element a in a magma (M, ) has the right cancellation property (or is right-cancellative) if for all b and c in
M, b a = c a always implies that b = c.
An element a in a magma (M, ) has the two-sided cancellation property (or is cancellative) if it is both left- and
right-cancellative.
A magma (M, ) has the left cancellation property (or is left-cancellative) if all a in the magma are left cancellative,
and similar denitions apply for the right cancellative or two-sided cancellative properties.
A left-invertible element is left-cancellative, and analogously for right and two-sided.
For example, every quasigroup, and thus every group, is cancellative.

1 Interpretation
To say that an element a in a magma (M, ) is left-cancellative, is to say that the function g : x a x is injective, so
a set monomorphism but as it is a set endomorphism it is a set section, i.e. there is a set epimorphism f such f(g(x))
= f(a x) = x for all x, so f is a retraction. Moreover, we can be constructive with f taking the inverse in the range
of g and sending the rest precisely to a.

2 Examples of cancellative monoids and semigroups


The positive (equally non-negative) integers form a cancellative semigroup under addition. The non-negative integers
form a cancellative monoid under addition.
In fact any free semigroup or monoid obeys the cancellative law, and in general any semigroup or monoid embedding
into a group (as the above examples clearly do) will obey the cancellative law.
In a dierent vein, (a subsemigroup of) the multiplicative semigroup of elements of a ring that are not zero divisors
(which is just the set of all nonzero elements if the ring in question is a domain, like the integers) has the cancellation
property. Note that this remains valid even if the ring in question is noncommutative and/or nonunital.

3 Non-cancellative algebraic structures


Although the cancellation law holds for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of real and complex numbers
(with the single exception of multiplication by zero and division of zero by another number), there are a number of
algebraic structures where the cancellation law is not valid.

1
2 4 SEE ALSO

The cross product of two vectors does not obey the cancellation law. If a b = a c, then it does not follow that b
= c even if a 0.
Matrix multiplication also does not necessarily obey the cancellation law. If AB = AC and A 0, then one must show
that matrix A is invertible (i.e. has det(A) 0) before one can conclude that B = C. If det(A) = 0, then B might not
equal C, because the matrix equation AX = B will not have a unique solution for a non-invertible matrix A.
Also note that if AB = CA and A 0 and the matrix A is invertible (i.e. has det(A) 0), it is not necessarily true
that B = C. Cancellation works only for AB = AC and BA = CA (obviously provided that matrix A is invertible) and
not for AB = CA and BA = AC.

4 See also
Grothendieck group
Invertible element

Cancellative semigroup
Integral domain
3

5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses


5.1 Text
Cancellation property Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancellation_property?oldid=801584881 Contributors: Zundark, The Anome,
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