Distributivity Property of Commutative Hyperoperators

Generated by Claude (Sonnet 4.5) on 2025-10-13

The Pattern

We discovered that commutative hyperoperators have a beautiful distributivity property that generalizes the familiar logarithm rule log(a × b) = log(a) + log(b).

General Statement

For commutative hyperoperators ⊕ᵢ with i ≥ 3:

ln(a ⊕ᵢ b) = ln(a) ⊕ᵢ₋₁ ln(b)

Or more generally:

h_i^{-1}(h_{i-1}(p_j)) = h_{i-2}(h_i^{-1}(p_j))

Where hᵢ⁻¹ is the "logarithm" at level i (in this construction, always the natural logarithm).

Connection to the Construction

Looking at the Ghalimi (2019) construction of commutative hyperoperators:

comhyp(x, y, 0) = ln(exp(x) + exp(y))
comhyp(x, y, 1) = x + y
comhyp(x, y, 2) = x * y
comhyp(x, y, 3) = exp(ln(x) * ln(y))
comhyp(x, y, z) = exp(comhyp(ln(x), ln(y), z-1))  [for z > 3]

The recursive definition for z > 3 directly implies the distributivity property:

comhyp(x, y, z) = exp(comhyp(ln(x), ln(y), z-1))

Taking ln of both sides:

ln(comhyp(x, y, z)) = comhyp(ln(x), ln(y), z-1)

This is exactly the distributivity property!

Verification at Each Level

Level 3 (commutative exponentiation): ln(comhyp(a, b, 3)) = ln(exp(ln(a) * ln(b))) = ln(a) * ln(b) = comhyp(ln(a), ln(b), 2)

Level 4: ln(comhyp(a, b, 4)) = ln(exp(comhyp(ln(a), ln(b), 3))) = comhyp(ln(a), ln(b), 3)

And for all i ≥ 3: ln(comhyp(a, b, i)) = comhyp(ln(a), ln(b), i-1)

Why This Is Special

For standard (non-commutative) hyperoperators: - Addition: log(a + b) ≠ log(a) + log(b) - distributivity fails - Multiplication: log(a × b) = log(a) + log(b) - distributivity works! ✓ - Exponentiation: log(a^b) ≠ log(a) × log(b) - distributivity fails (we get log(a^b) = b × log(a) instead) - Higher levels: distributivity continues to fail

But for commutative hyperoperators, distributivity works at every level i ≥ 3.

Connection to Geometric Mean Result

This explains why the relationship: exp(arithmetic_mean(log(odds))) = geometric_mean(odds)

works so nicely. The logarithm "descends one level" in the hyperoperator hierarchy: - Multiplication (level 2) → Addition (level 1) - This is the i=3 case of the general distributivity property

For standard hyperoperators, this is the only level where this works. But for commutative hyperoperators, it works at all levels, suggesting there might be analogous "mean relationships" at higher levels if we use commutative hyperoperators.

Open Questions

1. Can we define "generalized means" using commutative hyperoperators at each level?
2. Would these satisfy analogous relationships to arithmetic mean ↔ geometric mean?
3. Is there a connection to the Hölder/power means, or is that a different structure entirely?
4. Does this property have applications in probability aggregation or other domains?

Why Standard Hyperoperators Fail

Standard hyperoperators lose commutativity and associativity after multiplication: - Addition: commutative ✓, associative ✓ - Multiplication: commutative ✓, associative ✓ - Exponentiation: NOT commutative ✗, NOT associative ✗ - Tetration and higher: NOT commutative ✗, NOT associative ✗

The lack of commutativity breaks the distributivity property. Commutative hyperoperators restore this property by construction.

Summary

The familiar logarithm rule log(ab) = log(a) + log(b) is not an isolated mathematical curiosity, but rather the i=3 instance of a universal distributivity property that holds for all commutative hyperoperators at all levels i ≥ 3.