A characterization theorem for t-representable n-dimensional triangular norms

n-dimensional fuzzy sets are an extension of fuzzy sets that includes interval-valued fuzzy sets and interval-valued Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy sets. The membership values of n-dimensional fuzzy sets are n-tuples of real numbers in the unit interval [0,1], called n-dimensional intervals, ordered in increasing order. The main idea in n-dimensional fuzzy sets is to consider several uncertainty levels in the memberships degrees. Triangular norms have played an important role in fuzzy sets theory, in the narrow as in the broad sense. So it is reasonable to extend this fundamental notion for n-dimensional intervals. In interval-valued fuzzy theory, interval-valued t-norms are related with t-norms via the notion of t-representability. A characterization of t-representable interval-valued t-norms is given in term of inclusion monotonicity. In this paper we generalize the notion of t-representability for n-dimensional t-norms and provide a characterization theorem for that class of n-dimensional t-norms. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.