After endowing with a 3-Lie-Rinehart structure on Hom 3-Lie algebras, we obtain a class of special Hom 3-Lie algebras, which have close relationships with representations of commutative associative algebras. We provide a special class of Hom 3-Lie-
Rinehart algebras, called split regular Hom 3-Lie-Rinehart algebras, and we then characterize their structures by means of root systems and weight systems associated to a splitting Cartan subalgebra.
From a commutative associative algebra $A$, the infinite dimensional unital 3-Lie Poisson algebra~$mathfrak{L}$~is constructed, which is also a canonical Nambu 3-Lie algebra, and the structure of $mathfrak{L}$ is discussed. It is proved that: (1) the
re is a minimal set of generators $S$ consisting of six vectors; (2) the quotient algebra $mathfrak{L}/mathbb{F}L_{0, 0}^0$ is a simple 3-Lie Poisson algebra; (3) four important infinite dimensional 3-Lie algebras: 3-Virasoro-Witt algebra $mathcal{W}_3$, $A_omega^delta$, $A_{omega}$ and the 3-$W_{infty}$ algebra can be embedded in $mathfrak{L}$.
In this paper, we define a class of 3-algebras which are called 3-Lie-Rinehart algebras. A 3-Lie-Rinehart algebra is a triple $(L, A, rho)$, where $A$ is a commutative associative algebra, $L$ is an $A$-module, $(A, rho)$ is a 3-Lie algebra $L$-modul
e and $rho(L, L)subseteq Der(A)$. We discuss the basic structures, actions and crossed modules of 3-Lie-Rinehart algebras and construct 3-Lie-Rinehart algebras from given algebras, we also study the derivations from 3-Lie-Rinehart algebras to 3-Lie $A$-algebras. From the study, we see that there is much difference between 3-Lie algebras and 3-Lie-Rinehart algebras.
