Finite nonlinear mathematical structures induced by the Tsallis $q$-sum

Abstract

The Tsallis $q$-sum is one of the fundamental nonlinear composition laws of nonextensive statistical mechanics. Although it has been extensively investigated in continuous settings, its implications for finite mathematical structures remain less explored. Here we investigate this question by replacing ordinary additive laws with the Tsallis $q$-sum. We first introduce an axiomatic $q$-cardinality of finite sets satisfying a nonlinear additivity principle. Existence and uniqueness are established, leading to an explicit expression that continuously recovers the classical cardinality as $q\to1$. We then propose a nonlinear matrix composition induced by the same deformation and establish its principal algebraic properties, including associativity, the neutral element, and a characterization of its noncommutativity in terms of the ordinary matrix commutator. An illustrative example over $M_2(\mathbb Z_6)$ shows how the deformation can modify the center of a finite matrix algebra when $1-q$ is a zero divisor. These results indicate that the Tsallis $q$-sum provides a natural mechanism for constructing nonlinear finite mathematical structures and connects nonextensive statistical mechanics with finite algebra and nonlinear mathematical physics.