Characterizing determinacy in Kleene algebras

Elements of Kleene algebras can be used, among others, as abstractions of the inputoutput semantics of nondeterministic programs or as models for the association of pointers with their target objects. In the first case, one seeks to distinguish the subclass of elements that correspond to deterministic programs. In the second case one is only interested in functional correspondences, since it does not make sense for a pointer to point to two different objects. We discuss several candidate notions of determinacy and clarify their relationship. Some characterizations that are equivalent in the case where the underlying Kleene algebra is an (abstract) relation algebra are not equivalent for general Kleene algebras.