On formations of monoids (Q2184784)

A formation of monoids is a class of finite monoids closed under taking quotients and subdirect products. Every variety is a formation; so, formations may be seen as generalisations of varieties. Formation of groups and finite algebras have been studied extensively in literature. In this article, the authors study the formation of monoids from an algebraic point of view, in contrast to the previous studies from a formal language theory perspective. They provide two general constructions for formations: the first one relies on minimal ideals and the second one is defined in terms of maximal subgroups (Section 4). Some new examples of formations are also obtained. Then, the article focuses on a specific sublattice of the lattice of all monoid formations over a formation of groups. Given a formation \(\mathbf{H}\) of groups, it is shown that the lattice of \(\mathbf{H}\)-suited formations is isomorphic to the lattice of varieties containing the unique minimal non-group formation over \(\mathbf{H}\) (Theorem 5.1). Also, they prove that the lattice of non-trivial formations of monoids with zero is isomorphic to the lattice of varieties containing \(U_1\), where \(U_1\) is the idempotent monoid with underlying set \(\{0,1\}\) (Theorem 5.2). In the final section of the article, the Clifford formations are discussed in detail and several results are proved. It is shown that a subdirectly irreducible Clifford monoid is either a group or equal to \(G^\circ\), for a group \(G\) (Proposition 6.3). It is shown that the minimal non-group formation above a group formation is a Clifford formation. Further, detailed descriptions of Clifford formations and Clifford varieties are provided. In particular, it is shown that the lattice of non-trivial formations of Clifford monoids with zero is isomorphic to the lattice of varieties of groups (Theorem 6.12).