We adapt the abstract concepts of abelianness and centrality of universal algebra to the context of inverse semigroups. We characterize abelian and central congruences in terms of the corresponding congruence pairs. We relate centrality to conjugation in inverse semigroups. Subsequently, we prove that solvable and nilpotent inverse semigroups are groups.

This article is the second in a series investigating cartesian closed varieties. In first of these, we showed that every non-degenerate finitary cartesian variety is a variety of sets equipped with an action by a Boolean algebra B and a monoid M which interact to form what we call a matched pair ${\left[\smash{{B} \mathbin{\mid}{M} }\right]}$. In this article, we show that such pairs ${\left[\smash{{B} \mathbin{\mid}{M} }\right]}$ are equivalent to Boolean restriction monoids and also to ample source-étale topological categories; these are generalizations of the Boolean inverse monoids and ample étale topological groupoids used to encode self-similar structures such as Cuntz and Cuntz–Krieger $C^\ast$-algebras, Leavitt path algebras, and the $C^\ast$-algebras associated with self-similar group actions. We explain and illustrate these links and begin the programme of understanding how topological and algebraic properties of such groupoids can be understood from the logical perspective of the associated varieties.

We give a complete description of Rees quotients of free inverse semigroups given by positive relators that satisfy nontrivial identities, including identities in signature with involution. They are finitely presented in the class of all inverse semigroups. Those that satisfy a nontrivial semigroup identity have polynomial growth and can be given by an irredundant presentation with at most four relators. Those that satisfy a nontrivial identity in signature with involution, but which do not satisfy a nontrivial semigroup identity, have exponential growth and fall within two infinite families of finite presentations with two generators. The first family involves an unbounded number of relators and the other involves presentations with at most four relators of unbounded length. We give a new sufficient condition for which a finite set X of reduced words over an alphabet $A\cup A^{-1}$ freely generates a free inverse subsemigroup of $FI_A$ and use it in our proofs.

Motivated by approaches to the word problem for one-relation monoids arising from work of Adian and Oganesian (1987), Guba (1997), and Ivanov, Margolis, and Meakin (2001), we study the submonoid and rational subset membership problems in one-relation monoids and in positive one-relator groups. We give the first known examples of positive one-relator groups with undecidable submonoid membership problem, and we apply this to give the first known examples of one-relation monoids with undecidable submonoid membership problem. We construct several infinite families of one-relation monoids with undecidable submonoid membership problem, including examples that are defined by relations of the form $w=1$ but which are not groups, and examples defined by relations of the form $u=v$ where both of u and v are nonempty. As a consequence, we obtain a classification of the right-angled Artin groups that can arise as subgroups of one-relation monoids. We also give examples of monoids with a single defining relation of the form $aUb = a$ and examples of the form $aUb=aVa$, with undecidable rational subset membership problem. We give a one-relator group defined by a freely reduced word of the form $uv^{-1}$ with $u, v$ positive words, in which the prefix membership problem is undecidable. Finally, we prove the existence of a special two-relator inverse monoid with undecidable word problem, and in which both the relators are positive words. As a corollary, we also find a positive two-relator group with undecidable prefix membership problem. In proving these results, we introduce new methods for proving undecidability of the rational subset membership problem in monoids and groups, including by finding suitable embeddings of certain trace monoids.

The monogenic free inverse semigroup $FI_1$ is not finitely presented as a semigroup due to the classic result by Schein (1975). We extend this result and prove that a finitely generated subsemigroup of $FI_1$ is finitely presented if and only if it contains only finitely many idempotents. As a consequence, we derive that an inverse subsemigroup of $FI_1$ is finitely presented as a semigroup if and only if it is a finite semilattice.

The complex algebra of an inverse semigroup with finitely many idempotents in each $\mathcal D$-class is stably finite by a result of Munn. This can be proved fairly easily using $C^{*}$-algebras for inverse semigroups satisfying this condition that have a Hausdorff universal groupoid, or more generally for direct limits of inverse semigroups satisfying this condition and having Hausdorff universal groupoids. It is not difficult to see that a finitely presented inverse semigroup with a non-Hausdorff universal groupoid cannot be a direct limit of inverse semigroups with Hausdorff universal groupoids. We construct here countably many nonisomorphic finitely presented inverse semigroups with finitely many idempotents in each $\mathcal D$-class and non-Hausdorff universal groupoids. At this time, there is not a clear $C^{*}$-algebraic technique to prove these inverse semigroups have stably finite complex algebras.

We investigate the groups of units of one-relator and special inverse monoids. These are inverse monoids which are defined by presentations, where all the defining relations are of the form $r=1$. We develop new approaches for finding presentations for the group of units of a special inverse monoid, and apply these methods to give conditions under which the group admits a presentation with the same number of defining relations as the monoid. In particular, our results give sufficient conditions for the group of units of a one-relator inverse monoid to be a one-relator group. When these conditions are satisfied, these results give inverse semigroup theoretic analogues of classical results of Adjan for one-relator monoids, and Makanin for special monoids. In contrast, we show that in general these classical results do not hold for one-relator and special inverse monoids. In particular, we show that there exists a one-relator special inverse monoid whose group of units is not a one-relator group (with respect to any generating set), and we show that there exists a finitely presented special inverse monoid whose group of units is not finitely presented.

A prefix monoid is a finitely generated submonoid of a finitely presented group generated by the prefixes of its defining relators. Important results of Guba (1997), and of Ivanov, Margolis and Meakin (2001), show how the word problem for certain one-relator monoids, and inverse monoids, can be reduced to solving the membership problem in prefix monoids of certain one-relator groups. Motivated by this, in this paper, we study the class of prefix monoids of finitely presented groups. We obtain a complete description of this class of monoids. All monoids in this family are finitely generated, recursively presented and group-embeddable. Our results show that not every finitely generated recursively presented group-embeddable monoid is a prefix monoid, but for every such monoid, if we take a free product with a suitably chosen free monoid of finite rank, then we do obtain a prefix monoid. Conversely, we prove that every prefix monoid arises in this way. Also, we show that the groups that arise as groups of units of prefix monoids are precisely the finitely generated recursively presented groups, whereas the groups that arise as Schützenberger groups of prefix monoids are exactly the recursively enumerable subgroups of finitely presented groups. We obtain an analogous result classifying the Schützenberger groups of monoids of right units of special inverse monoids. We also give some examples of right cancellative monoids arising as monoids of right units of finitely presented special inverse monoids, and we show that not all right cancellative recursively presented monoids belong to this class.

This paper studies the structure and preservational properties of lower bounded HNN extensions of inverse semigroups, as introduced by Jajcayová. We show that if $S^* = [ S;\; U_1,U_2;\; \phi ]$ is a lower bounded HNN extension then the maximal subgroups of $S^*$ may be described using Bass-Serre theory, as the fundamental groups of certain graphs of groups defined from the $\mathcal{D}$-classes of $S$, $U_1$ and $U_2$. We then obtain a number of results concerning when inverse semigroup properties are preserved under the HNN extension construction. The properties considered are completely semisimpleness, having finite $\mathcal{R}$-classes, residual finiteness, being $E$-unitary, and $0$-$E$-unitary. Examples are given, such as an HNN extension of a polycylic inverse monoid.

For every group G, the set $\mathcal {P}(G)$ of its subsets forms a semiring under set-theoretical union $\cup $ and element-wise multiplication $\cdot $, and forms an involution semigroup under $\cdot $ and element-wise inversion ${}^{-1}$. We show that if the group G is finite, non-Dedekind, and solvable, neither the semiring $(\mathcal {P}(G),\cup ,\cdot )$ nor the involution semigroup $(\mathcal {P}(G),\cdot ,{}^{-1})$ admits a finite identity basis. We also solve the finite basis problem for the semiring of Hall relations over any finite set.

For a given inverse semigroup action on a topological space, one can associate an étale groupoid. We prove that there exists a correspondence between the certain subsemigroups and the open wide subgroupoids in case that the action is strongly tight. Combining with the recent result of Brown et al., we obtain a correspondence between the certain subsemigroups of an inverse semigroup and the Cartan intermediate subalgebras of a groupoid C*-algebra.

We examine a semigroup analogue of the Kumjian–Renault representation of C*-algebras with Cartan subalgebras on twisted groupoids. Specifically, we represent semigroups with distinguished normal subsemigroups as ‘slice-sections’ of groupoid bundles.

Twisted étale groupoid algebras have recently been studied in the algebraic setting by several authors in connection with an abstract theory of Cartan pairs of rings. In this paper we show that extensions of ample groupoids correspond in a precise manner to extensions of Boolean inverse semigroups. In particular, discrete twists over ample groupoids correspond to certain abelian extensions of Boolean inverse semigroups, and we show that they are classified by Lausch’s second cohomology group of an inverse semigroup. The cohomology group structure corresponds to the Baer sum operation on twists.

We also define a novel notion of inverse semigroup crossed product, generalizing skew inverse semigroup rings, and prove that twisted Steinberg algebras of Hausdorff ample groupoids are instances of inverse semigroup crossed products. The cocycle defining the crossed product is the same cocycle that classifies the twist in Lausch cohomology.

For a given inverse semigroup, one can associate an étale groupoid which is called the universal groupoid. Our motivation is studying the relation between inverse semigroups and associated étale groupoids. In this paper, we focus on congruences of inverse semigroups, which is a fundamental concept for considering quotients of inverse semigroups. We prove that a congruence of an inverse semigroup induces a closed invariant set and a normal subgroupoid of the universal groupoid. Then we show that the universal groupoid associated to a quotient inverse semigroup is described by the restriction and quotient of the original universal groupoid. Finally we compute invariant sets and normal subgroupoids induced by special congruences including abelianization.

It is shown that, for every prime number p, the complete lattice of all semidirectly closed pseudovarieties of finite monoids whose intersection with the pseudovariety G of all finite groups is equal to the pseudovariety Gp of all finite p-groups has the cardinality of the continuum. Furthermore, it is shown, in addition, that the complete lattice of all semidirectly closed pseudovarieties of finite monoids whose intersection with the pseudovariety G of all finite groups is equal to the pseudovariety Gsol of all finite solvable groups has also the cardinality of the continuum.

Given an action ${\varphi }$ of inverse semigroup S on a ring A (with domain of ${\varphi }(s)$ denoted by $D_{s^*}$), we show that if the ideals $D_e$, with e an idempotent, are unital, then the skew inverse semigroup ring $A\rtimes S$ can be realized as the convolution algebra of an ample groupoid with coefficients in a sheaf of (unital) rings. Conversely, we show that the convolution algebra of an ample groupoid with coefficients in a sheaf of rings is isomorphic to a skew inverse semigroup ring of this sort. We recover known results in the literature for Steinberg algebras over a field as special cases.

If $f:\tilde{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}\rightarrow \unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ is a covering map between connected graphs, and $H$ is the subgroup of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}_{1}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4},v)$ used to construct the cover, then it is well known that the group of deck transformations of the cover is isomorphic to $N(H)/H$, where $N(H)$ is the normalizer of $H$ in $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}_{1}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4},v)$. We show that an entirely analogous result holds for immersions between connected graphs, where the subgroup $H$ is replaced by the closed inverse submonoid of the inverse monoid $L(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4},v)$ used to construct the immersion. We observe a relationship between group actions on graphs and deck transformations of graph immersions. We also show that a graph immersion $f:\tilde{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}\rightarrow \unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ may be extended to a cover $g:\tilde{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E5}}\rightarrow \unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ in such a way that all deck transformations of $f$ are restrictions of deck transformations of $g$.

In the 1970s, Feldman and Moore classified separably acting von Neumann algebras containing Cartan maximal abelian self-adjoint subalgebras (MASAs) using measured equivalence relations and 2-cocycles on such equivalence relations. In this paper we give a new classification in terms of extensions of inverse semigroups. Our approach is more algebraic in character and less point-based than that of Feldman and Moore. As an application, we give a restatement of the spectral theorem for bimodules in terms of subsets of inverse semigroups. We also show how our viewpoint leads naturally to a description of maximal subdiagonal algebras.

An inverse semigroup $S$ is combinatorially factorizable if $S\,=\,TG$ where $T$ is a combinatorial (i.e., $\mathcal{H}$ is the equality relation) inverse subsemigroup of $S$ and $G$ is a subgroup of $S$ . This concept was introduced and studied by Mills, especially in the case when $S$ is cryptic (i.e., $\mathcal{H}$ is a congruence on $S$ ). Her approach is mainly analytical considering subsemigroups of a cryptic inverse semigroup.

We start with a combinatorial inverse monoid and a factorizable Clifford monoid and from an action of the former on the latter construct the semigroups in the title. As a special case, we consider semigroups that are direct products of a combinatorial inverse monoid and a group.