The Berman conjecture is true for finite surjective semigroups and their inflations (Q5930167)

A semigroup \(S\) is called surjective if \(S^2=S\). For a positive integer \(n\) let \(p_n(S)\) be the number of all essentially \(n\)-ary term operations on \(S\). In 1986 J.~Berman formulated a conjecture, which claims that the \(p_n\)-sequence of any finite algebra is either bounded by a constant or eventually strictly increasing (this is called the Berman property). The main results of the article are the following four ones. If \(S\) is a finite surjective semigroup which is not a union of groups then the \(p_n\)-sequence of \(S\) is eventually strictly increasing (Theorem 3.1). If a semigroup \(S\) is a union of groups which is neither a semilattice nor a rectangular band nor a Boolean group then there exists a non-negative integer \(n_0\) such that \(p_{n+1}(S)\geq p_n(S)+1\) for all \(n\geq n_0\) (Theorem 4.1). Let \(S\) be a finite semigroup and \(Q\) a semigroup with the following property: there is a positive integer \(m\) such that for all \(n\geq m\) \(Q\) satisfies all semigroup identities in \(n\) variables which are satisfied by \(S\). If \(V\) is a subdirect product of \(S\) and \(Q\) then \(p_n(V)=p_n(S)\) for all \(n\geq m\); in particular, if \(S\) has the Berman property, so does \(V\) (Theorem 5.1). A subdirect product of a finite surjective semigroup and a semilattice has the Berman property (Theorem 5.4).