Almeida's generalized variety problem (Q1372640): Difference between revisions

\textit{C. J. Ash} [J. Algebra 92, 104-115 (1985; Zbl 0548.08007)]\ defined a generalized variety as the union of a directed family of varieties, and showed that a class of algebras is a generalized variety if and only if it is closed under the formation of homomorphic images, subalgebras, arbitrary powers, and finite direct products. Ash also showed that generalized varieties provide a link between varieties and pseudovarieties: a class of algebras is a pseudovariety if and only if it consists of the finite members of some generalized variety. Let \(Com\) [\(Nil\), \(\mathcal N\)]\ denote the variety [generalized variety]\ of all commutative semigroups [nil semigroups, nilpotent semigroups]. For any class \(\mathcal W\) of semigroups, let \(L({\mathcal W})\) [\(G({\mathcal W})\)]\ denote the lattice of all varieties [generalized varieties]\ contained in \(\mathcal W\). \textit{J. Almeida} [Can. J. Math. 38, 19-47 (1986; Zbl 0594.20053)]\ has shown that the map \(\varphi\colon L(Nil\cap Com)\cup\{Nil\cap Com\}\to G({\mathcal N}\cap Com)\) given by \({\mathcal W}\varphi={\mathcal W}\cap{\mathcal N}\) is an isomorphism, and asked whether the extension of this map to \(L(Nil)\cup\{Nil\}\) is also an isomorphism. In the article a negative answer is given: two varieties \({\mathcal U},{\mathcal V}\in L(Nil)\) are defined and used to show that the map is not injective. In the process, congruence classes of the fully invariant congruences on the free semigroup on any countable set \(X\) with \(|X|>2\) which correspond to \(\mathcal U\) and \(\mathcal V\) are described which are denumerable and contain words of unbounded length.