Flows on regular semigroups (Q1395753)

Let \(\mathbf C\) be a category with vertex set \(V\) and arrow set \(A\). For \(a\in A\), \(a\sigma\in V\) is the source of \(a\) and \(a\tau\in V\) is the target of \(a\). A flow of \(\mathbf C\) is a mapping \(\varphi\colon V\to A\) such that \((x\varphi)\sigma=x\) for all \(x\in V\). If \(\varphi\) and \(\psi\) are flows then \(\varphi*\psi\) is the flow defined by: for \(x\in V\), \(x(\varphi*\psi)=x\varphi((x\varphi)\tau)\psi\). The monoid \(\Phi(\mathbf C)\) thus obtained is called the flow monoid of \(\mathbf C\). Let \(S\) be a regular semigroup. The groupoid associated to \(S\) has arrows of the form \((a,b)\) where \(a\) and \(b\) are pairwise inverses in \(S\). The set \(E(S)\) of idempotents of \(S\) is the vertex set. For an arrow \((a,b)\) we have \((a,b)\sigma=ab\) and \((a,b)\tau=ba\). The flow monoid of this groupoid is denoted by \(\Phi(S)\). It is shown that for a regular semigroup \(S\), \(\Phi(S)\) is again regular. In fact, \(\Phi(S)\) is isomorphic to the direct product of semigroups, each of which is a wreath product of a group and a full transformation semigroup. Furthermore, each such \(\Phi(S)\) is isomorphic to the flow monoid of a primitive inverse semigroup. Several special cases are considered.