Semigroups containing no maximal ideals (Q1825968)

A two-sided ideal \(M\) of a semigroup \(S\) is said to be covered if \(M\subseteq S(S\setminus M)S\). The author proves that a semigroup has no maximal ideals iff each of its principal ideals is covered. If a semigroup has no greatest ideal and the set of its principal ideals is up-directed then it has no maximal ideals. Similar results hold for maximal one-sided ideals.