Finite abundant semigroups in which the idempotents form a subsemigroup. (Q2368721)

This is a clearly written article on the problem, initiated by Schützenberger in the 1970's, of characterizing the pseudovariety \({\mathbf A}\vee{\mathbf G}\), where \(\mathbf A\) and \(\mathbf G\) are the pseudovarieties of finite aperiodic semigroups and all finite groups, respectively. For a semigroup \(S\), let \({\mathcal R}^*\) be defined by \(a{\mathcal R}^*b\) if and only if \(a{\mathcal R}b\) holds in an extension of \(S\). The relation \({\mathcal L}^*\) is the dual of \({\mathcal R}^*\), and let \({\mathcal H}^*={\mathcal R}^*\cap{\mathcal L}^*\). By definition, a semigroup \(S\) is bountiful, if it is abundant, i.e., each \({\mathcal R}^*\)-class and \({\mathcal L}^*\)-class contains an idempotent, and the idempotents of \(S\) form a subsemigroup, and \(S\) is idempotent connected (as defined in the article). The main theorem states that for a finite bountiful semigroup \(S\), \(S\in{\mathbf A}\vee{\mathbf G}\) if and only if \({\mathcal H}\subseteq\mu\). Here \(\mu\) is the greatest congruence containing \({\mathcal H}^*\).