Shades of orthodoxy in Rees-Sushkevich varieties. (Q1014791)

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. Of particular relevance to the paper under review are two recent papers by the author [Commun. Algebra 35, No. 11, 3624-3659 (2007; Zbl 1139.20055), J. Aust. Math. Soc. 84, No. 3, 375-403 (2008; Zbl 1161.20051)]. Rees-Sushkevich varieties that are themselves generated by 0-simple semigroups are termed exact. Denote by \(\mathbf{RS}_n\) the variety of Rees-Sushkevich semigroups whose groups have exponent dividing \(n\). Then \(\mathbf{O}_m\mathbf{RS}_n\) denotes the subvariety consisting of those members \(S\) with the property that any \(m\)-fold product of idempotents of \(S\) that lies in a subgroup must itself be idempotent. The intersection of all such varieties is denoted \(\mathbf{O}_\infty\mathbf{RS}_n\) and its members are termed `conditionally orthodox'. Various interesting properties of such varieties and their subvarieties are found. The main theorem of the paper shows that the lattice of exact subvarieties of \(\mathbf{O}_\infty\mathbf{RS}_n\) decomposes as the direct product of two sublattices: the lattice of varieties of groups of exponent dividing \(n\), and the lattice of exact subvarieties of the lattice \(\mathbf{RS}_1\) of combinatorial Rees-Sushkevich semigroups. The latter lattice was explicitly determined by the author in the first paper cited above.