A method for finding new sets of axioms for classes of semigroups. (Q453187)

This paper provides a method to find axioms characterizing classes of semigroups among the class of all groupoids or groupoids with a right (left) identity element. The method is based on the observation that a groupoid \(S\) is a semigroup iff the action of left multiplication commutes with that on the right. Hence the two main steps to obtain axioms for some class \(\mathcal C\) of semigroups are: 1) assuming \(S\) to be in \(\mathcal C\), to find conditions satisfied by the image \(\lambda(S)\) of its representation by left multiplications in the full transformation monoid of \(S\), and 2) to characterize the centralizer \(C(\underline s)\) of each element \(\underline s\in\lambda(S)\), then expressing the statement that right multiplication by an arbitrary \(t\in S\) must sit in \(C(\underline s)\). The authors apply this method to the case of idempotent semigroups and semilattices. More interestingly, they obtain a short axiom that singles out groups of exponent \(n\) among the class of groupoids with a right identity element; this axiom is equational and has \(n+4\) occurrences of variables. In these examples the authors benefit from characterizations of the centralizer obtained in other publications, [by \textit{J.~Araújo} and \textit{J.~Konieczny}, J. Algebra 269, No. 1, 227-239 (2003; Zbl 1037.20062); Commun. Algebra 32, No. 5, 1917-1935 (2004; Zbl 1068.20061), and by \textit{J. Konieczny} and \textit{S. Lipscomb}, Math. Jap. 48, No. 3, 367-376 (1998; Zbl 0917.20051)].