Chains and anti-chains in the lattice of epigroup varieties. (Q972586)

An epigroup is a semigroup in which some power of each element belongs to a subgroup. Epigroups may be treated as unary semigroups, where the unary operation associates to each element \(a\) the element \(e_aa\), \(e_a\) being the identity of the subgroup associated with \(a\). This approach was initiated by L. N. Shevrin. For recent work see \textit{L. N. Shevrin, B. M. Vernikov} and \textit{M. V. Volkov} [Russ. Math. 53, No. 3, 1-28 (2009); translation from Izv. Vyssh. Uchebn. Zaved., Mat. 2009, No. 3, 3-36 (2009; Zbl 1185.08002)]. For each positive integer \(n\), denote by \(\mathcal E_n\) the variety of unary semigroups consisting of the epigroups of index at most \(n\), where the index of an epigroup is the least exponent, if such exists, for which the corresponding power of every element lies in a subgroup. The authors prove that for each \(n\), the interval \([\mathcal E_n,\mathcal E_{n+1}]\) contains a chain isomorphic to the chain of real numbers, and an anti-chain with cardinality that of the continuum. They use tools that were developed by \textit{J. Ježek} [Algebra Univers. 6, 147-158 (1976; Zbl 0354.08007)] for the lattice of semigroup varieties.