On varieties of combinatorial inverse semigroups. I (Q1179486)

This is the first part of a two-part work dedicated to the study of the lattice of varieties of combinatorial inverse semigroups. In this lattice, the variety \(\langle B^ 1_ 2\rangle\) generated by Perkins' semigroup \(B^ 1_ 2\) plays a prominent role: below it lies a chain of three well-known varieties; above it, not much is known. Aiming at solving the problem of existence of covers of \(\langle B^ 1_ 2\rangle\), whose negative solution is postponed to the second part of the work, the author deals in the present paper with the structure of semigroups in \(\langle B^ 1_ 2\rangle\). He obtains a characterization of countable semigroups in \(\langle B^ 1_ 2\rangle\) in terms of filters of the poset of \(\mathcal D\)-classes of a completely semisimple inverse semigroup and the associated structure maps between comparable \(\mathcal D\)-classes. His structural criterion is shown to be sufficient for membership in \(\langle B^ 1_ 2\rangle\) for arbitrary inverse semigroups but necessity is only established in the case of finite or countably infinite semigroups.