Special elements in the lattice of overcommutative semigroup varieties revisited. (Q633228)

An element \(x\) of a lattice \(L\) is neutral if for any \(y,z\in L\), \(x\), \(y\) and \(z\) generate a distributive sublattice. Such elements play an important role in lattice theory in that they correspond to certain subdirect decompositions (in terms of the principal ideal and the principal filter associated with \(x\)). The neutral elements in the lattice of semigroup varieties were determined by \textit{M. Volkov}, [Proceedings of the 68th workshop on general algebra. Contributions to General Algebra 16, 275-288 (2005; Zbl 1090.20030)]. Characterizations of elements with related properties in this lattice have also been given. These same properties were studied within the interval sublattice of overcommutative varieties by the second author [Math. Notes 70, No. 5, 608-615 (2001); translation from Mat. Zametki 70, No. 5, 670-678 (2001; Zbl 1036.20052)]. In the current paper, the authors point out that the description provided therein of the varieties that are neutral within this sublattice is incomplete. Here they provide a complete description by means of explicit sets of identities, specified in a framework of partitions of positive integers. (Since an identity satisfied in an overcommutative variety must be balanced, it determines a partition of the number of variables that appear in the identity.) Various other lattice-theoretic properties of elements of the lattice are shown to be equivalent to neutrality. Some open questions are stated.