Normal forms for band free products (Q1820872)

Bands are idempotent \((x^ 2=x)\) semigroups. U bd V denotes the free product \((=coproduct)\) of two bands U, V relative to the variety of all bands. Members of U bd V are congruence classes [w] of words w in the semigroup free product of U and V. This paper aims for, but falls short of, a unique normal form theorem for members of U bd V. Instead such a result is obtained in the restricted case that U and V are normal bands. However, the restricted result is enough to show that the word problem is unsolvable - that is, two normal bands U, V are effectively given such that the question \([w_ 1]=?\) \([w_ 2]\) is unsolvable in U bd V.