Regular semigroups with skew pairs of idempotents (Q1849726)

Let \(S\) be a regular semigroup with set of idempotents \(E(S)\). Given \(x,y\) in \(S\), we say that \((x,y)\) is a skew pair if \(xy\not\in E(S)\) whereas \(yx\in E(S)\). The nonexistence of a skew pair in a regular semigroup is characterized in terms of four forbidden subsemigroups each of which is a homomorphic image of a certain regular Rees matrix semigroup over a two-element semilattice. The concept of skew pair is then used to characterize certain regular Rees matrix semigroups.