The notion of a closure operator is defined here for an arbitrary partially ordered set.
Now consider an arbitrary set $x$, and call its powerset $P.$ Furthermore, let us order $P$ by inclusion, thereby obtaining a complete lattice. Under these circumstances, it well known that given a closure operator $\mathrm{cl} : P \rightarrow P$, we can obtain a complete lattice $Q \subseteq P$ as follows.
- The elements of $Q$ are precisely the $a \in Q$ such that $\mathrm{cl}(a)=a.$
- The meet of $A \subseteq Q$ is simply $\bigcap A.$ (By intersection, I simply mean the meet operation of $P$. Thus if $A$ is empty, its meet is simply $x$).
- The join of $A \subseteq Q$ is $\mathrm{cl}\left(\bigcup A\right).$
So I'm wondering. What happens in more general situations? e.g. What if $P$ is an arbitrary poset, or an arbitrary lattice, or even an arbitrary complete lattice?
Edit: For example, if $P$ is a lattice, do we obtain a new lattice? (Clearly it needn't be complete - as Carl Mummert explains in the comments, we can always take $\mathrm{cl}$ to be the identity operator). And what if $P$ is a join-semilattice, or a meet-semilattice?
The fixpoints of a closure operator on a (complete) meet semilattice is always a (complete) meet semilattice, with the inherited meet, whereas the fixpoints of a closure operator on a (complete) join semilattice is a (complete) join semilattice, but possibly with a different join – but your formula still works.
This generalises to arbitrary categories, so long as we replace "closure operator" with "idempotent monad".