A Description of Iterative Reflections of Monads

For ideal monads in Set (e. g. the finite list monad, the finite bag monad etc.) we have recently proved that every set generates a free iterative algebra. This gives rise to a new monad. We prove now that this monad is iterative in the sense of Calvin Elgot, in fact, this is the iterative reflection of the given ideal monad. This shows how to freely add unique solutions of recursive equations to a given algebraic theory. Examples: the monad of free commutative binary algebras has the monad of binary rational unordered trees as iterative reflection, and the finite list monad has the iterative reflection given by adding an absorbing element. In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them. John von Neumann (1903–1957)