Any Boolean algebra can be turned into a RA by interpreting conjunction as composition (the monoid multiplication ), i.e. is defined as . This interpretation requires that converse interpret identity (), and that both residuals and interpret the conditional (i.e., ).
The motivating example of a relation algebra depends on the definition of a binary relation on a set as any subset , where is the cartesian square of . The power set consisting of all binary relations on is a Boolean algebra. While can be made a relation algebra by taking , as per example (1) above, the standard interpretation of is instead . That is, the ordered pair belongs to the relation just when there exists such that and . This interpretation uniquely determines as consisting of all pairs such that for all , if then . Dually, consists of all pairs such that for all , if then . The translation then establishes the converse of as consisting of all pairs such that .
An important generalization of the previous example is the power set where is any equivalence relation on the set . This is a generalization because is itself an equivalence relation, namely the complete relation consisting of all pairs. While is not a subalgebra of when (since in that case it does not contain the relation , the top element being instead of ), it is nevertheless turned into a relation algebra using the same definitions of the operations. Its importance resides in the definition of a representable relation algebra as any relation algebra isomorphic to a subalgebra of the relation algebra for some equivalence relation on some set. The previous section says more about the relevant metamathematics.
Let be a group. Then the power set is a relation algebra with the obvious Boolean algebra operations, composition given by the product of group subsets, the converse by the inverse subset (), and the identity by the singleton subset. There is a relation algebra homomorphism embedding in which sends each subset to the relation . The image of this homomorphism is the set of all right-invariant relations on .
Stef Joosten、「Ampersandコンパイラを使用したプログラミング言語としての関係代数」、Journal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming、第100巻、2018年4月、113~129ページ。(https://ampersandtarski.github.io/も参照)