Partial actions and proper extensions of two-sided restriction semigroups (Q2031584)

Restriction semigroups, also known as weakly \(E\)-ample semigroups, have proven to be popular generalizations of inverse semigroups. Many major theorems of the latter class been generalized to the former, but perhaps more interestingly, significant theorems have been proven for restriction semigroups that do not specialize to significant results for inverse semigroups. The current work provides a common broadening of work by \textit{L. O'Carroll} [Proc. Edinb. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 20, 339--354 (1977; Zbl 0367.20049)] on idempotent-pure extensions of inverse semigroups and \textit{C. Cornock} and \textit{V. Gould} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 216, No. 4, 935--949 (2012; Zbl 1258.20047)] on proper restriction semigroups. In one formulation, a surjective morphism \(\psi : T \longrightarrow S\) of restriction semigroups is `proper' if \(\psi\) is injective when restricted to the two generalized Green relations induced by the unary operations \(^+\) and \(^*\). This reduces to idempotent-purity for inverse semigroups; when applied to a restriction semigroup \(T\), properness of the morphism associated with the least reduced (i.e. monoid) congruence agrees with properness of \(T\) as a restriction semigroup. Given such a proper morphism \(\psi\), it induces a surjective morphism \(p\) between the semilattices \(P(T)\) and \(P(S)\) of projections, and a `premorphism' \(\widehat{\psi}\) of \(S\) into the symmetric inverse semigroup \(\mathcal{I} (P(T))\), which may be regarded as a partial action of \(S\) upon \(P(T)\). In this way, \(T\) can be represented faithfully as a certain modified semidirect product \(P(T) \rtimes^p_{\widehat{\psi}} S\). Conversely, given the appropriate ingredients, a proper covering of \(S\) can always be obtained. In fact, there are two ways of producing a premorphism, as above, leading to two equivalences between categories of proper extensions and categories of triples associated with premorphisms (or partial actions). In addition, various special types of extensions are characterized in terms of the above ingredients.