Right ideal Howson semigroups (Q2227621)

A semigroup \(S\) is said to be \textit{right ideal Howson} if the intersection of any two finitely generated right ideals or, equivalently, of any two principal right ideals, is again finitely generated. In this review we can only provide a sample of the results found on this topic. Among the classes of semigroups shown to have this property are inverse semigroups, free semigroups and finitely presented commutative semigroups. Every variety of bands not consisting either of rectangular or right regular bands contains a band that does not have this property and, in addition, for each nonnegative integer \(n\), a band satisfying (Rn), the property that there exist two principal right ideals whose intersection is exactly \(n\)-generated as a right ideal. In a related vein, for each pair \(n, m\) of nonnegative integers, a presentation is given such that the resulting semigroup is cancellative, both right and left ideal Howson, and satisfies (Rn) and its dual (Lm). A similar result is proven in the commutative case. In a different direction, preservation of the right ideal Howson property is considered under various operations. For instance, free products preserve the property but semidirect products do not, in general, even in the case of monoids.