Maximal dense ideal extensions of locally inverse semigroups. (Q2502264)

Dense ideal extensions play a central role in the construction of ideal extensions in general. In the class of all semigroups, it is well known that a semigroup has a maximal dense ideal extension if and only if it is weakly reductive, in which case its translational hull serves the purpose. Thus every regular semigroup has a maximum dense ideal extension. However, it is known that not every regular semigroup has such an extension within the class of regular semigroups. Thus it is of interest to find classes of regular semigroups in which every member has a maximal dense ideal extension within that class. Inverse semigroups form such a class, since the translational hull of an inverse semigroup is again inverse. The main theorem of this paper is that the analogous result holds for the class of locally inverse semigroups, a result the authors describe as `curious and unexpected'. Rather than using translational hulls, the authors follow the approach that Schein used for inverse semigroups, based on the partial order. The plausibility of extending this approach is based on the well known fact that the locally inverse semigroups are precisely those regular semigroups for which the natural partial order is compatible with the multiplication. The authors show that for such a semigroup \(S\), its order ideals form a semigroup \(O(S)\) in which \(S\) can be naturally embedded; the semigroup comprising the regular elements of the idealizer of the image of \(S\) in \(O(S)\) is then the requisite ideal extension.