Varieties of completely regular semigroups generated by Mal'cev products (Q1333180)

The Malcev product of two varieties \(\mathcal U\), \(\mathcal V\) of completely regular semigroups consists of those completely regular semigroups \(S\) endowed with a congruence whose idempotent classes belong to \(\mathcal U\) and whose factor semigroup belongs to \(\mathcal V\). The reviewer [J. Aust. Math. Soc., Ser. A 42, 227-246 (1987; Zbl 0613.20038)] showed that if \(\mathcal U\) consists of rectangular groups and \(\mathcal V\) is any variety of completely regular semigroups, then their Malcev product is always a variety and asked if this remains true for all varieties \(\mathcal U\) of completely simple semigroups (all other cases have been decided). The authors first extend the above result to all such varieties \(\mathcal U\) that are central, that is, in each member of \(\mathcal U\) products of idempotents lie in the centre of the maximal subgroup to which they belong. They go on to answer the above question in the negative: the Malcev product of the variety \(\mathcal D\), consisting of those completely simple semigroups for which the idempotent-generated core has abelian maximal subgroups, with the variety of left regular bands, is not again a variety. In a related study, the varieties generated by various important Malcev products are described, making use of the concept of ``CR-relational morphism'', an adaptation of the usual concept of relational morphism in arbitrary semigroups.