On varieties of completely regular semigroups. II, III (Q1099257)

The two papers under review complete, with part I [Semigroup Forum 32, 97-123 (1985; Zbl 0564.20034)], a trilogy encompassing some of the deepest theorems in semigroup theory. I shall state the main result, Theorem 3.6, as fully as space allows. To do this, various definitions and notation will have to be formulated but, roughly speaking, each variety \((=\) variety of completely regular semigroups, in this context) is uniquely determined by a ``ladder'', labelled from a very special sublattice \({\mathcal E}\) of the entire lattice \({\mathcal L}\) of varieties. (Actually, only ``regular'' varieties are so determined, but this is no real restriction.) For instance, ladders for varieties of orthogroups are labelled by group varieties and so, in a concrete way, the lattice of varieties of orthogroups is represented faithfully in a power of the lattice of group varieties. The following concepts were introduced by \textit{A. H. Clifford} [J. Algebra 59, 434-451 (1979; Zbl 0412.20049)]. Let U denote the free unary semigroup on a countably infinite set X. If \(a\in U\) then the content C(a) of a is the set of letters of X which appear in a; O(a) is the longest initial segment of a, whose content is properly contained in C(a), all unmatched parentheses being then deleted; \(\ell (a)\) is defined dually. In Part I, with each relation \(\sim\) on U were associated new relations \(\sim_ O=\{(a,b)\in U\times U:\) \(a=O(c)\), \(b=\ell (d)\), for some \(c\sim d\}\); \(\sim_{\ell}\), defined dually; \({\bar \sim}=\{(a,b)\in U\times U:\) \(C(a)=C(b)\), \(a\sim b\), O(a)\({\bar \sim}O(b)\) and \(\ell (a){\bar \sim}\ell (b)\}\). Given a variety \({\mathcal V}\), new varieties \({\mathcal V}_ O\), \({\mathcal V}_{\ell}\) and \(\bar {\mathcal V}\) are then associated with \(\sim_ O\), \(\sim_{\ell}\) and \({\bar \sim}\), respectively, where \(\sim\) is the fully invariant congruence on U determined by \({\mathcal V}\) in the usual way. The relations \(\tau_ O\), defined on the lattice \({\mathcal L}\) by \({\mathcal V}\tau_ O{\mathcal W}\) if \({\mathcal V}_ O={\mathcal W}_ O\) and (\({\mathcal V}\) is regular iff \({\mathcal W}\) is), \(\tau_{\ell}\), defined dually, and \(\rho\), defined by \({\mathcal V}\rho {\mathcal W}\) if \(\bar {\mathcal V}=\bar {\mathcal W}\), are complete congruences on \({\mathcal L}\). The variety \(\underline {\mathcal V}\) is then defined to be the least element of the \(\rho\)-class containing \({\mathcal V}\). The set \({\mathcal E}\) of all such least elements is a sublattice of \({\mathcal L}\) isomorphic with \({\mathcal L}/\rho\). By taking the ordinal sum of the semilattice \(\{\) \({\mathcal L},{\mathcal R},{\mathcal O}\); \({\mathcal L}\wedge {\mathcal R}={\mathcal O}\}\) with \({\mathcal E}\), a new lattice \({\mathcal E}_ 0\) is obtained. Let \(\Lambda\) be the set \(\{\) 0,1\(\}\times \{0,1,2,...\}\) with the pairs (0,0) and (1,0) identified, partially ordered by \((i,m)>(j,n)\) if \(m<n\); (\(\Lambda\) is the underlying poset of the ``ladders'' referred to above.) For \({\mathcal V}\in {\mathcal L}\) and (i,m)\(\in \Lambda\), varieties \({\mathcal V}_{(i,m)}\) may be defined inductively by \({\mathcal V}_{(0,0)}={\mathcal V}_{(1,0)}={\mathcal V}\) and \({\mathcal V}_{(i,m)}=({\mathcal V}_{(i-1,m- 1)})_ i\), for \(m\geq 1\) (i-1 being calculated mod 2). For instance \({\mathcal V}_{0,3}=(({\mathcal V}_ 0)_ 1)_ 0\). Now an isotone map \(\xi_{{\mathcal V}}: \Lambda \to {\mathcal E}_ 0\) may be defined by \(\xi_{{\mathcal V}}(i,m)=\underline{V_{(i,m)}}\), if \({\mathcal V}_{(i,m)}\) contains the variety \({\mathcal S}{\mathcal L}\) of semilattices, or by \({\mathcal L}\), \({\mathcal R}\) or \({\mathcal O}\) if \({\mathcal V}_{(i,m)}\) consists of left zero, of right zero or of trivial semigroups, respectively. In the sense that each vertex of \(\Lambda\) may be labelled by its image in \({\mathcal E}_ 0\), this map is the ``ladder'' in question. The Main Theorem states that the map \(\xi\) : \({\mathcal V}\to \xi_{{\mathcal V}}\) defines a monomorphism of the interval [\({\mathcal S}{\mathcal L},{\mathcal C}{\mathcal R}]\) (of regular varieties) into the lattice \(\Psi\) of all isotone maps of \(\Lambda\) into \({\mathcal E}_ 0\), evidently a sublattice of \({\mathcal E}_ 0\). Moreover the range of \(\xi\) is a precisely identified complete sublattice \(\Phi\) of \(\Psi\) whose members are determined by two simple and natural conditions. For each ladder \(\alpha\) in \(\Phi\), a basis of identities for the variety \({\mathcal V}\) such that \(\xi_{{\mathcal V}}=\alpha\) may be constructed effectively from bases for the varieties in \({\mathcal E}_ 0\) which label \(\alpha\). The entire lattice \({\mathcal L}\) may be treated by a slight extension of this theorem, if so desired. Two examples may illuminate the power of this theorem. (1) For any variety \({\mathcal V}\) of bands, \(\underline {\mathcal V}={\mathcal T}\), the trivial variety. Thus all ladders for band varieties are labelled by \({\mathcal T}\), \({\mathcal L}\), \({\mathcal R}\) or \({\mathcal O}\). The (known) lattice of band varieties can now be very easily recovered. (2) For any variety \({\mathcal V}\) of orthogroups (that is, of completely regular semigroups whose idempotents form a subsemigroup), \(\underline {\mathcal V}\) is a group variety. The lattice of all orthogroup varieties is completely determined in terms of the lattice of group varieties, solving a longstanding problem. In the final section, which readers should peruse earlier, the operators and congruences defined above are shown to coincide with those studied by \textit{F. Pastijn} [``The lattice of completely regular semigroup varieties'' (to appear)], by \textit{N. R. Reilly} [J. Aust. Math. Soc., Ser. A 38, 372-393 (1985; Zbl 0572.20040)] and by the reviewer [J. Aust. Math. Soc., Ser. A 42, 227-246 (1987; Zbl 0613.20038)], all independently. (This fact was also discovered by Pastijn, who thereby deduced the modularity of the lattice \({\mathcal L}\) from that of \({\mathcal E}).\) The paper contains a host of other applications, including a detailed analysis of the interactions amongst these operators and others considered by various authors.