On some medial semigroups with an associate subgroup. (Q2428569)

Let \(S\) be a semigroup and \(s,t\in S\). The element \(t\) is called an `associate' of \(s\) if \(s=sts\). Let \(z\) be an idempotent of \(S\). If \(S\) has a maximal subgroup \(G\) such that every element \(s\) of \(S\) has a unique associate in \(G\), say \(s^*\), we say that \(G\) is an associate subgroup of \(S\) and consider the mapping \(s\to s^*\) as a unary operation on \(S\). Let \(z\) be an idempotent of \(S\). The maximal subgroup \(H_z\) having \(z\) as the identity element is an `associate subgroup' of \(S\) if \(H_z\) contains exactly one associate, say \(s^*\), of each element \(s\) of \(S\). The element \(z\) is called the `zenith' of \(S\). Let \(E(S)\) be the set of idempotents of \(S\) and \(C(S)\) the subsemigroup of \(S\) generated by \(E(S)\). The idempotent \(z\) is called `medial' if \(s=szs\) for all \(s\in S\). In this case \(S\) is called `medial'. A unary semigroup with an associate subgroup is medial if and only if it satisfies the identity \((st)^*=t^*s^*\) [see \textit{P. M. Martins, M. Petrich}, Commun. Algebra 36, No. 6, 1999-2013 (2008; Zbl 1146.20041)]. The class of medial semigroups with an associate subgroup is a variety. \textit{T. S. Blyth} and \textit{P. M. Martins} established for it a usable structure theorem in terms of an idempotent generated medial semigroup \(C\) and a group \(G\) provided with a single homomorphism from \(G\) into the automorphism group of \(wCw\) where \(w\) denotes the zenith of \(C\) [Commun. Algebra 25, No. 7, 2147-2156 (1997; Zbl 0880.20048)]. The purpose of this work is a study of certain varieties of medial semigroups with an associate subgroup. There are introduced several relations germane to the presence of this unary operation. There are given characterizations of medial, orthodox, cryptic and medial, cryptic and orthodox semigroups with an associate subgroup. There is established an isomorphism between the lattice of varieties of cryptic medial monoids and the direct product of the lattice of band monoids and the lattice of group varieties. An embedding into idempotent generated semigroups is proved as well.