Characterization of simplicity and cancellativity in \(\beta S\) (Q2460060)

Let \(S\) be a semigroup. A non-empty subset \(I\) of \(S\) is an ideal of \(S\) iff \(IS\cup SI\subseteq I\), and \(S\) is called simple if the only ideal of \(S\) is \(S\). \(S\) is called cancellative if every \(x\in S\) is both left cancelable and right cancelable, that is, for each \(y,z\in S\) if \(yx=zx\) or \(xy=xz\), then \(y=z\). It is known that the Stone-Čech compactification \(\beta S\) of a semigroup \(S\) is a right topological semigroup with \(S\) contained in its topological center. In this paper, the authors give characterizations of discrete semigroups \(S\) for which \(\beta S\) is simple and those for which \(\beta S\) is cancellative. Note that if \(S\) is an infinite discrete semigroup, for example \(S=({\mathbb N}, +)\), then \(\beta S\) cannot be a cancellative semigroup. Indeed, the characterization in this paper says that \(\beta S\) is cancellative if and only if \(S\) is a finite group.