Special elements of the lattice of epigroup varieties (Q312202)

Epigroups (i.e., semigroups in which every element has a power that belongs to a subgroup) are considered here as algebras of type \((2,1)\), the unary operation being pseudoinversion. The authors study neutral, modular and upper-modular elements of the lattice of all epigroup varieties. They classify all varieties that are neutral elements (there are only 4 of them, Theorem~1.1) and all commutative varieties that are modular elements (Theorem~1.3). Varieties that are upper-modular elements are described in the class of varieties satisfying an identity of the form \(x_1x_2\cdots x_n=x_{1\pi}x_{2\pi}\cdots x_{n\pi}\) where \(\pi\) is a permutation of \(\{1,2,\dots,n\}\) with \(1\pi\neq 1\) and \(n\pi\neq n\) (Theorem~1.4). All results are similar to those known for the plain semigroup varieties but their proofs have to overcome some epigroup-specific issues.