Can a single nontrivial identity imply associativity and commutativity

universal-algebra

As noted in this old question it's easy to see that no single identity is equivalent to the conjunction of the commutative and associative laws.

Question. In the language of a binary operation, is there a single nontrivial identity which implies both the commutative law and the associative law?

By "nontrivial" I mean that it does not imply that the operation is constant.

I suppose the answer is well known to experts on universal algebra. If possible, please give the explanation "for dummies", as any technicalities are likely to go over my head.

Best Answer

Yes.

According to Theorem $1$ of

Minimal Identities for Boolean Groups
N. S. MENDELSOHN AND R. PADMANABHAN
JOURNAL OF ALGEBRA 34, 451-457 (1975)

a structure $\langle A, \star\rangle$ satisfies the single identity $(x\star y)\star (x\star (z\star y)) \approx z$ if and only if the structure is an abelian group of exponent $2$.

[The fact that such an identity exists follows from work of Higman and Neumann from 1952, but the paper I cite gives short identities.]

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