On the characterization of topological semigroups on closed intervals (Q2502257)

The characterization (using simple conditions) of the topological linearly ordered semigroups which can be embedded o-isomorphically in the multiplicative or additive group of the real numbers is a very old one. Hilbert asks (in the second part of his celebrated fifth problem) if a cancellative commutative topological semigroup defined on an open interval might be topologically isomorphic to an open subsemigroup of \(({\mathbb R},+)\) or \(({\mathbb R},\cdot )\). The first positive answer was given by Aczel. In this paper, the author shows that with a weaker form of cancellativity it is still possible to o-embed into \(({\mathbb R},\cdot )\) (or equivalently \(({\mathbb R},+)\)) a topological linearly ordered semigroup defined on a connected and compact set. He also proves that the role played by an o-isomorphism connecting abstract linearly ordered semigroups to subsemigroups of \(({\mathbb R},+)\) or \(({\mathbb R},\cdot )\), can be assumed by a monotone non-injective mapping.