On Finite Presentability of Direct Products of Semigroups

A finite semigroup S is said to preserve finite generation (resp., presentability) in direct products, provided that, for every infinite semigroup T, the direct product S × T is finitely generated (resp., finitely presented) if and only if T is finitely generated (resp., finitely presented). The main result of this paper is a constructive necessary and sufficient condition for S to preserve both finite generation and presentability in direct products. The condition is that certain graphs, (s), one for each s S, are all connected. The main result is illustrated in three examples, one of which exhibits a 4-element semigroup that preserves finite generation but not finite presentability in direct products.1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: 20M05, 05C25The first author is financially supported by the Sub-Programa Ciência e Tecnologia do 2° Quadro Comunitário de Apoio (grant number BD/ 15623/98). The author also acknowledges the support of the Centro de Álgebra da Universidade de Lisboa and of the Projecto Praxis 2/2.1/MAT/73/94. The second author acknowledges partial financial support from the Nuffield Foundation.