In mathematics, duality theory for distributive lattices provides three different representations of bounded distributive latticesvia Priestley spaces, spectral spaces, and pairwise Stone spaces. This duality, which is originally also due to Marshall H. Stone, generalizes the well-knownStone duality between Stone spaces and Boolean algebras. Let be a bounded distributive lattice, and let denote the set of prime filters of. For each, let. Then is a spectral space, where the topology on is generated by. The spectral space is called the prime spectrum of. The map is a lattice isomorphism from onto the lattice of all compactopen subsets of. In fact, each spectral space is homeomorphic to the prime spectrum of some bounded distributive lattice. Similarly, if and denotes the topology generated by, then is also a spectral space. Moreover, is a pairwise Stone space. The pairwise Stone space is called the bitopological dual of. Each pairwise Stone space is bi-homeomorphic to the bitopological dual of some bounded distributive lattice. Finally, let be set-theoretic inclusion on the set of prime filters of and let. Then is a Priestley space. Moreover, is a lattice isomorphism from onto the lattice of all clopen up-sets of. The Priestley space is called the Priestley dual of. Each Priestley space is isomorphic to the Priestley dual of some bounded distributive lattice. Let Dist denote the category of bounded distributive lattices and bounded latticehomomorphisms. Then the above three representations of bounded distributive lattices can be extended to dual equivalence between Dist and the categories Spec, PStone, and Pries of spectral spaces with spectral maps, of pairwise Stone spaces with bi-continuous maps, and of Priestley spaces with Priestley morphisms, respectively: Thus, there are three equivalent ways of representing bounded distributive lattices. Each one has its own motivation and advantages, but ultimately they all serve the same purpose of providing better understanding of bounded distributive lattices.
