A representation of nullnorms on a bounded lattice in terms of beam operations

Abstract We introduce three broad classes of nullnorms on a bounded lattice and lay bare the structure of their members. For that purpose, we introduce particular subsets of a bounded lattice, called upper (resp. lower) beams, and appropriate associative operations on them, called beam (resp. dual beam) operations, which conveniently generalize triangular norms (resp. triangular conorms). It is shown that nullnorms in the first (resp. second) class are characterized by a triangular conorm (resp. triangular norm) and a beam operation (resp. dual beam operation), while nullnorms in the third class are characterized by a triangular conorm and a triangular norm. We also discuss the relationships among these three classes.