Free algebras and coproducts in varieties of Gödel algebras

Gödel algebras are the Heyting algebras satisfying the axiom (x → y) ∨ (y → x) = 1. We utilize Priestley and Esakia dualities to dually describe free Gödel algebras and coproducts of Gödel algebras. In particular, we realize the Esakia space dual to a Gödel algebra free over a distributive lattice as the, suitably topologized and ordered, collection of all nonempty closed chains of the Priestley dual of the lattice. This provides a tangible dual description of free Gödel algebras without any restriction on the number of free generators, which generalizes known results for the finitely generated case. A similar approach allows us to characterize the Esakia spaces dual to coproducts of arbitrary families of Gödel algebras. We also establish analogous dual descriptions of free algebras and coproducts in every variety of Gödel algebras. As consequences of these results, we obtain a formula to compute the depth of coproducts of Gödel algebras and show that all free Gödel algebras are bi-Heyting algebras.