Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
In this paper we study partially ordered vector spaces X whose positive cone K possesses a base which defines a norm in X. A positive decomposition x = y − z of the element x is said to be minimal if ‖x‖ = ‖y‖ + ‖z‖. We proved in (6) that the property that every element of X has a unique minimal decomposition is equivalent to an intersection property for homothetic translates of the base. Section 2 of the present paper analyses this intersection property in much more detail and discusses possible generalizations of it.