MV-algebras: a variety for magnitudes with archimedean units

Chang’s MV-algebras, on the one hand, are the algebras of the infinite-valued Łukasiewicz calculus and, on the other hand, are categorically equivalent to abelian lattice-ordered groups with a distinguished strong unit, for short, unital ℓ-groups. The latter are a modern mathematization of the time-honored euclidean magnitudes with an archimedean unit. While for magnitudes the unit is no less important than the zero element, its archimedean property is not even definable in first-order logic. This gives added interest to the equivalent representation of unital ℓ-groups via the equational class of MV-algebras. In this paper we survey several applications of this equivalence, and various properties of the variety of MV-algebras.Dedicated to the Memory of Wim BlokReceived August 26, 2003; accepted in final form October 3, 2004.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.