ABSTRACT
Quantales a re pa r t ia l ly ordered algebraic s t r u c tu r e s , w h ich a re complete lat tices, and a re equipped w i th a su p -p re se rv in g a s so c ia t iv e b i n a r y o p e ra t io n . While t h e s t u d y of su c h s t r u c t u r e s goes back to th e 1930's, t h e r e has r e c e n t ly been m u c h in te res t in q u an ta le s in a v a r i e ty of contexts . Examples of q u a n ta l e s include f r a m e s (and hence com p le te Boolean algebras), var ious lat tices of m ult ip l ica t ive ideals f rom algebra and analys is , as well as re la t ions on a set. For a th o ro u g h in troduc t ion to quan ta le s , see the book by Rosen thal [Rl]. (A briefer in troduct ion appears in [NR1]).
