Extremal topologies on a semigroup (Q1814283)

Given a semigroup \((S,+)\) with discrete topology \(\tau_ d\), and given a set \({\mathcal A}\) of topologies on \(S\), an element \(\tau\) of \({\mathcal A}\) is said to be extremal (in \({\mathcal A})\) if (i) \(\tau\neq\tau_ d\) and (ii) if \(\tau\subseteq\tau'\in{\mathcal A}\) and \(\tau\neq\tau'\), then \(\tau'=\tau_ d\). The author shows that if the collection \({\mathcal F}\) of all zero- dimensional, left translation invariant topologies in \(S\) satisfies \({\mathcal F}\backslash\{\tau_ d\}\neq\emptyset\), then \({\mathcal F}\) has an extremal element, and he offers several theorems which display a correspondence between idempotents in \(\beta S\backslash S\) and topologies \(\tau\) which are extremal in various families \({\mathcal A}\). Of these results, the following is typical. Theorem 3.8. Let \((S,+)\) have identity 0 and let \({\mathcal A}\) be the class of \(T_ 1\), left translation invariant topologies on \(S\). Then \(\tau\in{\mathcal A}\) (with \(\tau\neq\tau_ d)\) is extremal in \({\mathcal A}\) if and only if there is an idempotent \(e\in\beta S\backslash S\) such that \(\{U\cup\{0\}:U\in e\}\) is the \(\tau\)-neighborhood system at 0. In \(\S4\) the author shows that ``to any given zero-dimensional left translation invariant nondiscrete topology on \(S\) there corresponds a closed subsemigroup of \(\beta S\) whose clopen neighborhoods are closely related to neighborhoods of the given topology.'' \(\S5\) relates extremal left translation invariant Hausdorff topologies on \(S\) to idempotents of \(\beta S\backslash S\) which are maximal in a natural sense.