Dynamic algebras as a well-behaved fragment of relation algebras

The varieties RA of relation algebras and DA of dynamic algebras are similar with regard to definitional capacity, admitting essentially the same equational definitions of converse and star. They differ with regard to completeness and decidability. The RA definitions that are incomplete with respect to representable relation algebras, when expressed in their DA form are complete with respect to representable dynamic algebras. Moreover, whereas the theory of RA is undecidable, that of DA is decidable in exponential time. These results follow from representability of the free intensional dynamic algebras. ∗ Dept. of Computer Science, Stanford, CA 94305. This paper is based on a talk given at the conference Algebra and Computer Science, Ames, Iowa, June 2-4, 1988. It will appear in the proceedings of that conference, to be published by SpringerVerlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number CCR-8814921