On countably compact 0-simple topological inverse semigroups (Q2461622)

After a survey on several related results on different kinds of topological semigroups, the authors prove that the bicyclic semigroup cannot be embedded into any countably compact topological inverse semigroup. They describe the structure of 0-simple countably compact topological inverse semigroups by, e.g., showing the relationship to topological Brandt \(\lambda\)-extensions or by investigating their Stone-Čech compactification. They further discuss the structure of congruence-free countably compact topological inverse semigroups.