Universal expansion of semigroup varieties by regular involution (Q1209276)

A category \(K\) is said to be universal if every category of algebras can be fully embedded into \(K\). Semigroup varieties which are universal as categories were described by the author and \textit{J. Sichler} [J. Aust. Math. Soc., Ser. A 36, 143-152 (1984; Zbl 0549.20038)]. Clearly, a universal variety should be large enough; it turned out, however, that even rather small semigroup varieties (e.g. the variety of rectangular bands) can possess ``hidden'' universality which can be revealed by going to so-called expansion by regular involution, see the author's paper [Comment. Math. Univ. Carol. 31, 201-211 (1990; Zbl 0731.18001)]. A regular involution semigroup is a semigroup with an additional unary operation \(x \to x^ +\) satisfying the identities \((x^ +)^ +=x\), \(xx^ +x = x\), \((xy)^ + = y^ +x^ +\) (the latter identity is accidentally missed in the definition in the paper under review). The expansion of a semigroup variety \(V\) by regular involution is the subvariety \(R(V)\) of the variety of all regular involution semigroups defined by the identities of \(V\). The aim of the paper is to describe all the universal expansions of semigroup varieties by regular involution. The author characterizes them from several points of view; in particular, he proves that \(R(V)\) is universal if and only if \(V\) contains a regular semigroup being neither inverse nor singular.