On a question of Pollák and Volkov regarding hereditarily finitely based identities. (Q397082)

A semigroup is finitely based if its identities are finitely axiomatizable. A semigroup identity is hereditarily finitely based if any semigroup that satisfies it is finitely based. As the author notes in the introduction of this paper ``Pollák initiated the investigation of hereditarily finitely based identities during 1970s and, for over a decade contributed immensely to their identification.'' Recall that a semigroup word is simple if it contains each variable at most once. A word is almost simple if it contains one variable twice and any other variable at most once. An identity is called almost simple if it is formed by a pair of almost simple words and alternating if it is formed by a simple word and an almost simple word. In 1985 Pollák and Volkov ask the following questions: (A) Which alternating identities are hereditarily finitely based? In particular, (B) is the alternating identity \(xy\approx x^2y\) hereditarily finitely based? [see \textit{G. Pollák, M. V. Volkov}, Semigroups, Proc. Conf., Szeged/Hung. 1981, Colloq. Math. Soc. János Bolyai 39, 287-323 (1985; Zbl 0633.20038)]. In 2000 \textit{J. Kad'ourek} [Semigroup Forum 60, No. 1, 135-152 (2000; Zbl 0941.20067)] gave the answer to question (B). He proved that the identity \(xy\approx x^2y\) is not hereditarily finitely based since it is satisfied by continuum many different semigroup varieties. The present paper extends this result to a complete answer to question (A). An alternating identity is hereditarily finitely based if and only if it is not of the form \(x_1\cdots x_kyz_1\cdots z_r\approx x_1\cdots x_ky^2z_1\cdots z_r\), where \(k, r\geq 0\), and \((k,r)\neq (0,0)\).