Regular principal factors in free objects in Rees-Sushkevich varieties. (Q1941750)

A Rees-Sushkevich variety is a semigroup variety that is contained in a periodic variety generated by (completely) 0-simple semigroups. Such varieties have recently been the subject of intense investigation. Denote by \(\mathbf{RS_n}\) the variety of Rees-Sushkevich semigroups whose groups have exponent dividing \(n\) and, more generally, for any variety \(\mathbf U\) of groups of finite exponent, denote by \(\mathbf{RS_U}\) the variety of such semigroups all of whose subgroups belong to \(\mathbf U\). The main theorem is a description of the regular principal factors in the free semigroups of such varieties (the irregular principal factors being null). The description of these completely [0-] simple semigroups is in terms of the `fundamental semigroups' associated by the author [Semigroup Forum 84, No. 1, 176-199 (2012; Zbl 1257.20053)] with labeled, connected, bipartite graphs, with this purpose in mind. When the free groups in \(\mathbf U\) have solvable word problem, the word problem can then be solved in the free semigroups in \(\mathbf{RS_U}\). As noted by the author, a key technical observation is that for semigroups in Rees-Sushkevich varieties, there is a natural retraction onto any of its regular \(\mathcal J\)-classes.