No label defined (Q4444663)

This is the first part of a 3-paper series by the author and the reviewer. The goal of the series is to give a complete classification of semigroup varieties \(\mathcal V\) whose subvariety lattice is either upper semimodular or lower semimodular or Arguesian. The present paper contains the main results of the series that characterize such varieties \(\mathcal V\) in three different ways: by describing identities which have to hold in \(\mathcal V\), by decomposing \(\mathcal V\) as a join of specific subvarieties, and by listing ``forbidden varieties'' which \(\mathcal V\) has to avoid. It turns out that the subvariety lattice of a semigroup variety is upper semimodular iff it is modular iff it is Arguesian, while the class of varieties with lower semimodular subvariety lattice is strictly larger. This corrects a claim made in the reviewer's announcement [Russ. Acad. Sci., Dokl., Math. 46, No. 2, 274-278 (1993); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk, Ross. Akad. Nauk 326, No. 3, 409-413 (1992; Zbl 0809.20051)]. Besides that, the paper contains an analysis of the subvariety lattice for each of the ``forbidden varieties'' that implies the necessity in the ``forbidden variety'' characterization.