HS-stability and complex products in involution semigroups (Q1982576)

The authors state that their direct inspiration was the question of which subsets \(S\) of a group \(S\) satisfy \(\langle S^{-1}S\rangle = \langle S \rangle\), which led to the question of which subsets \(S_1, \ldots, S_n\) of an involution semigroup \(S\) satisfy \(\langle S_1 \ldots S_n\rangle = \langle S_1 \cup \cdots \cup S_n \rangle\). For tractability, they instead considered the \textit{HS-stable} subsemigroup \(\langle B \rangle ^{HS}\) generated by a subset \(B\) of \(S\). Here, an involution subsemigroup \(T\) of \(S\) is \(HS\)-stable if (i) \(xx^* \in T\) for all \(x \in S\) and (ii) for all \(h \in H_S\) and for all \(x, y \in S\), \(xhy \in T\) implies \(xy \in T\). Clearly, if groups are regarded as involution semigroups in the natural way, every subgroup is HS-stable. In this context, the question above is answered. The general answer is a little too technical to provide here, but the answer to the original question, above, is that equality fails to hold if and only if \(S\) is contained in a nontrivial left coset of a proper subgroup of \(G\). The remainder of the paper explores HS-stability and the notion of HS-simplicity, where the semigroup contains no proper HS-stable involution subsemigroups. For instance, is \(S\) is an involution semigroup with zero, it is HS-simple if and only if \(S = S^2\). These properties are also explored within regular \(^*\)-semigroups and commutative involution semigroups.