Malcev presentations for subsemigroups of direct products of coherent groups

The direct product of a free group and a polycyclic group is known to be coherent. This paper shows that every finitely generated subsemigroup of the direct product of a virtually free group and an abelian group admits a finite Malcev presentation. (A Malcev presentation is a presentation of a special type for a semigroup that embeds into a group. A group is virtually free if it contains a free subgroup of finite index.) By considering the direct product of two free semigroups, it is also shown that polycyclic groups, unlike nilpotent groups, can contain finitely generated subsemigroups that do not admit finite Malcev presentations.     

Presentations for subsemigroups of finitely generated commutative semigroups

We introduce the concept of presentation for subsemigroups of finitely generated commutative semigroups, which extends the concept of presentation for finitely generated commutative semigroups. We show that for every subsemigroup of a finitely generated commutative semigroup there are special presentations which solve the word problem in the given subsemigroup. Some properties like being cancellative, reduced and/or torsion free are studied under this new point of view. This paper was supported by the project DGES PB96-1424.     

Semigroups of matrices of intermediate growth

Finitely generated linear semigroups over a field K that have intermediate growth are considered. New classes of such semigroups are found and a conjecture on the equivalence of the subexponential growth of a finitely generated linear semigroup S and the nonexistence of free noncommutative subsemigroups in S, or equivalently the existence of a nontrivial identity satisfied in S, is stated. This ‘growth alternative’ conjecture is proved for linear semigroups of degree 2, 3 or 4. Certain results supporting the general conjecture are obtained. As the main tool, a new combinatorial property of groups is introduced and studied.     

Largest subsemigroups of the full transformation monoid

In this paper we are concerned with the following question: for a semigroup S, what is the largest size of a subsemigroup T?S where T has a given property? The semigroups S that we consider are the full transformation semigroups; all mappings from a finite set to itself under composition of mappings. The subsemigroups T that we consider are of one of the following types: left zero, right zero, completely simple, or inverse. Furthermore, we find the largest size of such subsemigroups U where the least rank of an element in U is specified. Numerous examples are given.     

Automatic structures for subsemigroups of Baumslag–Solitar semigroups

This paper studies automatic structures for subsemigroups of Baumslag–Solitar semigroups (that is, semigroups presented by 〈x,y∣(yx ^m ,x ⁿ y)〉 where $m,n \in\mathbb {N}$ ). A geometric argument (a rarity in the field of automatic semigroups) is used to show that if m>n, all of the finitely generated subsemigroups of this semigroup are (right-) automatic. If m<n, all of its finitely generated subsemigroups are left-automatic. If m=n, there exist finitely generated subsemigroups that are not automatic. An appendix discusses the implications of these results for the theory of Malcev presentations. (A Malcev presentation is a special type of presentation for semigroups embeddable into groups.)     

On generators and relations for unions of semigroups

Finite generation and presentability of general unions of semigroups, as well as of bands of semigroups, bands of monoids, semilattices of semigroups and strong semilattices of semigroups, are investigated. For instance, it is proved that a band Y of monoids S _α (α∈ Y ) is finitely generated/presented if and only if Y is finite and all S _α are finitely generated/presented. By way of contrast, an example is exhibited of a finitely generated semigroup which is not finitely presented, but which is a disjoint union of two finitely presented subsemigroups. January 21, 2000     

On the subsemigroup complex of an aperiodic Brandt semigroup

We introduce the subsemigroup complex of a finite semigroup S as a (boolean representable) simplicial complex defined through chains in the lattice of subsemigroups of S. We present a research program for such complexes, illustrated through the particular case of combinatorial Brandt semigroups. The results include alternative characterizations of faces and facets, asymptotical estimates on the number of facets, or establishing when the complex is pure or a matroid.     

Reversibility properties of semigroup actions on homogeneous spaces

This paper studies reversibility of subsemigroups acting on homogeneous spaces. The reversor set of a subsemigroup is defined and it is related to the invariant control sets for semigroups acting on certain homogeneous spaces. Let G be a connected noncompact semi-simple Lie group with finite center. Let L be a subgroup of?G. Assume that S is a subsemigroup of G with intS???. The main result characterizes the reversibility of the S-action on G/L in terms of the actions of S and L on the flag manifolds of G.     

Generators and relations for subsemigroups via boundaries in Cayley graphs

Given a finitely generated semigroup S and subsemigroup T of S, we define the notion of the boundary of T in S which, intuitively, describes the position of T inside the left and right Cayley graphs of S. We prove that if S is finitely generated and T has a finite boundary in S then T is finitely generated. We also prove that if S is finitely presented and T has a finite boundary in S then T is finitely presented. Several corollaries and examples are given.     

The identities of the free product of two trivial semigroups

We exhibit an example of a finitely presented semigroup S with a minimum number of relations such that the identities of S have a finite basis while the monoid obtained by adjoining 1 to S admits no finite basis for its identities. Our example is the free product of two trivial semigroups.     

Green index in semigroups: generators, presentations, and automatic structures

The Green index of a subsemigroup T of a semigroup S is given by counting strong orbits in the complement S?T under the natural actions of T on S via right and left multiplication. This partitions the complement S?T into T-relative -classes, in the sense of Wallace, and with each such class there is a naturally associated group called the relative Schützenberger group. If the Rees index |S?T| is finite, T also has finite Green index in S. If S is a group and T a subgroup then T has finite Green index in S if and only if it has finite group index in S. Thus Green index provides a common generalisation of Rees index and group index. We prove a rewriting theorem which shows how generating sets for S may be used to obtain generating sets for T and the Schützenberger groups, and vice versa. We also give a method for constructing a presentation for S from presentations of T and the Schützenberger groups. These results are then used to show that several important properties are preserved when passing to finite Green index subsemigroups or extensions, including: finite generation, solubility of the word problem, growth type, automaticity (for subsemigroups), finite presentability (for extensions) and finite Malcev presentability (in the case of group-embeddable semigroups).     

Free and almost-free subsemigroups of a free semigroup

A subsemigroup S of a free semigroup F(Σ) is almost-free if there is a free subsemigroupT such that S?T?F(Σ) and T/S is finite. It is shown that it is decidable whether a subsemigroup generated by a regular subset of F(Σ) is almost-free. Sufficient- conditions are given such that if a family F of subsets of F(Σ) satisfies these conditions, then it is undecidable for L∈F whether the subsemigroup generated by L is free and also whether it is almost-free.     

Periodic subsemigroups of endomorphism monoids

If S is a periodic subsemigroup of the endomorphism monoid of a polycyclic group, then Endimioni (Mediterr J Math 8:307–313, 2011) proved that S is locally finite. Here we present an alternative proof that also extends the result to groups with suitable rank restrictions. Further we give an alternative proof of McNaughton and Zalcstein’s (J Algebra 34:292–299, 1975) theorem that periodic multiplicative subsemigroups of a matrix ring over a field are also locally finite. Finally we extend the latter to periodic subsemigroups of the endomorphism ring of a finitely generated module over a commutative ring.     

Inverse subsemigroups of finite index in finitely generated inverse semigroups

We study some aspects of Schein’s theory of cosets for closed inverse subsemigroups of inverse semigroups. We establish an index formula for chains of subsemigroups, and an analogue of M. Hall’s Theorem on the number of cosets of a fixed finite index. We then investigate the relationships between the following properties of a closed inverse submonoid of an inverse monoid: having finite index; being a recognizable subset; being a rational subset; being finitely generated (as a closed inverse submonoid). A remarkable result of Margolis and Meakin shows that these properties are equivalent for a closed inverse submonoid of a free inverse monoid.     

On Cayley graphs of rectangular groups

In this paper, we first give a characterization of Cayley graphs of rectangular groups. Then, vertex-transitivity of Cayley graphs of rectangular groups is considered. Further, it is shown that Cayley graphs Cay(S,C) which are automorphism-vertex-transitive, are in fact Cayley graphs of rectangular groups, if the subsemigroup generated by C is an orthodox semigroup. Finally, a characterization of vertex-transitive graphs which are Cayley graphs of finite semigroups is concluded.     

On the Finite and Nonfinite Generation of Diagonal Acts

The diagonal right act of a semigroup S is the set S × S, with S acting by componentwise multiplication from the right. The diagonal left act and diagonal bi-act of S are defined analogously.

Necessary and sufficient conditions are found for the finite generation of the diagonal bi-acts of completely zero-simple semigroups and completely simple semigroups. It is also proved that various classes of semigroups do not have finitely generated or cyclic diagonal right, left, or bi-acts.     

Howson's Property for Semidirect Products of Semilattices by Groups

An inverse semigroup S is a Howson inverse semigroup if the intersection of finitely generated inverse subsemigroups of S is finitely generated. Given a locally finite action θ of a group G on a semilattice E, it is proved that E*_θG is a Howson inverse semigroup if and only if G is a Howson group. It is also shown that this equivalence fails for arbitrary actions.