A Characterization of Minimal Locally Finite Varieties
Keith A. Kearnes, Ágnes Szendrei · Transactions of the American Mathematical Society · 1997
In this paper we describe a one–variable Mal′cev–like condition satisfied by any locally finite minimal variety. We prove that a locally finite variety is minimal if and only if it satisfies this Mal′cev–like condition and it is generated by a strictly simple algebra which is nonabelian or has a trivial subalgebra. Our arguments show that the strictly simple generator of a minimal locally finite variety is unique, it is projective and it embeds into every member of the variety. We give a new proof of the structure theorem for strictly simple abelian algebras that generate minimal varieties.