[Math] Associative and Commutative operations

abstract-algebra

After I got the answer here, Is multiplication the only operation that satisfies the associative, commutative and distributive law?

I got to wonder how many and different operations can satisfy both associative and commutative law over rational numbers and real numbers.

Here's some examples.

a*b=a+b+ab

a*b=a+b-ab

a*b=rab (r: constant)

a*b=c (c: constant)

Are there any other operations that can satisfy both associative and commutative law over rational numbers and real numbers?

Can we imagine all the binary operations that can satisfy both laws?

And are there any reference I can look up?

I googled a bit and found these

https://mathoverflow.net/questions/139331/generalizing-detropicalization

https://mathoverflow.net/questions/139215/commutative-associative-rational-binary-operations

So another possibility is ab/(a+b), (a+b)/(1-ab). But they are not continuous at a+b=0 and 1-ab=0.

Best Answer

The question doesn't make much sense because when you ask for associative commutative binary operations on the set of real numbers, you forget the whole structure of $\mathbb{R}$. It is just a set, and for the question only the cardinality matters, which is known as the continuum $c$. If $X$ is any set with cardinality $c$ and some associative commutative binary operation, we get a corresponding one on the set of real numbers. For example the set of integer sequences has cardinality $c$, and we can take its addition, or its multiplication.