Definable principal subcongruences

Abstract.

For varieties of algebras, we present the property of having "definable principal subcongruences" (DPSC), generalizing the concept of having definable principal congruences. It is shown that if a locally finite variety V of finite type has DPSC, then V has a finite equational basis if and only if its class of subdirectly irreducible members is finitely axiomatizable. As an application, we prove that if A is a finite algebra of finite type whose variety V(A) is congruence distributive, then V(A) has DPSC. Thus we obtain a new proof of the finite basis theorem for such varieties. In contrast, it is shown that the group variety V(S ₃ ) does not have DPSC.