On lattice properties of epigroups. (Q998785)

An epigroup is a semigroup in which some power of each element lies in a subgroup. The `pseudo-inverse' operation makes such semigroups into unary semigroups in a natural way, and thus it is a little surprising that the lattice of unary subsemigroups -- the subepigroup lattice -- has not received attention until now. The authors prove that their description of the semigroups whose subsemigroup lattice is upper semimodular [Semigroups and their subsemigroup lattices, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers (1996; Zbl 0858.20054)] may be modified (not without additional effort) to determine the epigroups whose subepigroup lattice has that property. Explicit specializations to varieties of modular lattices are then obtained. In a different direction, it is shown that certain properties of an epigroup are inherited when one takes an epigroup with isomorphic subepigroup lattice. For instance this is true of the property that the epigroup be a semilattice of archimedean subepigroups.