Permutability class of a semigroup (Q1975908)

Given a semigroup \(S\) and an integer \(n>1\) the set of all permutations \(\sigma\) such that the identity \(x_1x_2\cdots x_n=x_{\sigma (1)}x_{\sigma(2)}\cdots x_{\sigma (n)}\) holds in \(S\) is a subgroup of the symmetric group \(S_n\) denoted by \(G_n(S)\). The permutability class of \(S\) is the sequence of groups \((G_2(S),G_3(S),\dots)\). The aim of this paper is to describe these sequences. For a fixed permutation \(\sigma\) of \(S_n\) and \(k\in\{1,\dots,n\}\) consider the permutations of \(S_{n+1}\): \[ \begin{aligned}\sigma^{(0)}&=\left(\begin{matrix} 1 &2 &\cdots &n &n+1\\ 1 &1+\sigma(1) &\cdots &1+\sigma(n-1) &1+\sigma(n)\end{matrix}\right)\\ \sigma^{(n+1)}&=\left(\begin{matrix} 1 &2 &\cdots &n &n+1\\ \sigma(1) &\sigma(2) &\cdots &\sigma(n) &n+1\end{matrix}\right)\\ \sigma^{(k)}(i)&=\begin{cases}\sigma'(i)\quad &\text{if }i<\sigma^{-1}(k)\\ k\quad &\text{if }i=\sigma^{-1}(k)\\ \sigma'(i-1)\quad &\text{if }i>\sigma^{-1}(k)\end{cases}\end{aligned} \] where \(\sigma'(i)=\sigma(i)\) whenever \(\sigma(i)<k\) and \(\sigma'(i)=\sigma(i)+1\) otherwise. Given a subgroup \(G\) of \(S_n\) let \(G^+\) denote the subgroup of \(S_{n+1}\) generated by \(\sigma^{(k)}\), where \(k=0,1,\dots,n+1\) and \(\sigma\in G\). The following result is proved: Theorem. Let \(G=(G_2,G_3,\dots)\) be a sequence of permutation groups such that \(G_n\subset S_n\). Then \(G=(G_2(S),G_3(S),\dots)\) for some semigroup \(S\) if and only if \(G^+_n\subset G_{n+1}\), for all \(n>1\). The most important and beautiful contribution of this paper is the description of the groups \(G^+\). As an application a problem raised by \textit{S. Lajos} [PU.M.A., Pure Math. Appl., Ser. A 3, No. 3-4, 215-217 (1992; Zbl 0798.20052)] is completely solved. Thus, denote by \(k(n)\) the least number \(k\) such that for every fixed-point-free permutation \(\sigma\) of \(S_n\), every \(\sigma\)-permutable semigroup is \((1,k)\)-commutative. The author proves that \(k(n)=n-1\) for \(n<4\) and \(k(n)=n+1\) otherwise. The result for the case when \(n\) is even was established by the reviewer [in Semigroup Forum 53, No. 2, 173-183 (1996; Zbl 0861.20051)]. Note that there are some points of view that this paper has in common with a paper of \textit{G. Pollák} [Acta Sci. Math. 34, 323-333 (1973; Zbl 0263.20042)].