Syntactic and Rees indices of subsemigroups (Q1270378)

A new notion of index for subsemigroups of semigroups, namely the syntactic index is defined. Let \(S\) be a semigroup, \(X\subset S\) and \(\pi\) be an equivalence relation on \(S\). Denote by: (i) \(\Sigma_r(\pi)\) (resp. \(\Sigma_l\pi\)) the maximal right (resp. left) congruence on \(S\) contained in \(\pi\); (ii) \([S:\pi]\) the index of \(\pi\) in \(S\) (i.e. the number of equivalence classes of \(\pi\) in \(S\)); (iii) \(\Delta_X=\{(x,x)\mid x\in X\}\) and \(\Phi_X=X\times X\). Let \(T\) be a subsemigroup of \(S\). The right syntactic index of \(T\) in \(S\) is \([S:\Sigma_r(\Phi_T\cup\Phi_{S\setminus T})]\) and it is denoted \([S:T]_{rs}\). Similary, one can define the left syntactic index of \(T\) in \(S\), \([S:T]_{lr}\). Another notion of index for subsemigroups, the Rees index, was introduced by \textit{A. Jura} [Can. Math. Bull. 21, 37-46 (1978; Zbl 0379.20047)]. The Rees index of \(T\) in \(S\) is the number of elements of \(S\setminus T\) denoted by \([S:T]_R\). The authors investigate the relationships between the syntactic index, the Rees index and the group index. They establish that some properties of the group index have their analogues for the syntactic index but some others fail. For instance they prove the following Theorem. Let \(S\) be a semigroup and let \(T\) be a subsemigroup of \(S\). (i) If both \(S\) and \(T\) are groups then \([S:T]_{rs}=[S:T]\). (ii) \([S:T]_{rs}\) is the smallest number \(n\) such that there exists a right congruence \(\rho\) on \(S\) of index \(n\) which has \(T\) as a union of \(\rho\)-classes. (iii) \([S:T]_{rs}\) is finite if and only if \([S:T]_{ls}\) is finite. (iv) If \(S\) is finitely generated then it has only finitely many subsemigroups of any given right syntactic index \(n\). Examples illustrating properties of the group index which are not inherited by the syntactic index are given. It is shown that the results on the syntactic index enable to obtain, as corollaries, some known properties of Rees index. The authors conclude by considering the decidability of some properties in connection with the syntactic and the Rees indices and finite presentations.