Completely regular semigroups CR are regarded here as algebras with multiplication and the unary operation of inversion. Their lattice of varieties is denoted by L(CR). Let B denote the variety of bands and L(B) the lattice of its subvarieties. The mapping V → V ∩ B is a complete homomorphism of L(CR) onto L(B). The congruence induced by it has classes that are intervals, say VB = [VB, VB] for V ∈ L(CR). Here VB = V ∩ B. We characterize VB in several ways, the principal one being an inductive way of constructing bases for v-irreducible band varieties. We term the latter canonical. We perform a similar analysis for the intersection of these varieties with the varieties BG, OBG and B.

Suppose we are given the free product V of a finite family of finite or countable sets (Vi)i∈∮ and probability measures on each Vi, which govern random walks on it. We consider a transient random walk on the free product arising naturally from the random walks on the Vi. We prove the existence of the rate of escape with respect to the block length, that is, the speed at which the random walk escapes to infinity, and furthermore we compute formulae for it. For this purpose, we present three different techniques providing three different, equivalent formulae.

We call an algebraic group monothetic if it possesses a dense cyclic subgroup. For an arbitrary field k we describe the structure of all, not necessarily affine, monothetic k-groups G and determine in which cases G has a k-rational generator.

Let G be a finite group, K a field, and V a finite-dimensional K G-module. Write L(V) for the free Lie algebra on V; similarly, let M ( V) be the free metabelian Lie algebra. The action of G extends naturally to these algebras, so they become KG-modules, which are direct sums of finite-dimensional submodules. This paper explores whether indecomposable direct summands of such a KG-module (for some specific choices of G, K and V) must fall into finitely many isomorphism classes. Of course this is not a question unless there exist infinitely many isomorphism classes of indecomposable KG-modules (that is, K has positive characteristic p and the Sylow p-subgroups of G are non-cyclic) and dim V > 1.

The first two results show that the answer is positive for M(V) when K is finite and dim V = 2, but negative when G is the Klein four-group, the characteristic of K is 2, and V is the unique 3-dimnsional submodule of the regular module D. In the third result, G is again the Klein four-group, K is any field of charateristic 2 with more than 2 elements, V is any faithfull module of dimension 2, and B is the unique 3-dimensional quotient of D; the answer is positive for L(V) if and only if it is positive for each of L(B), L(D), and L(V ⊗ V).

In this paper we investigate non-central elements of the Iwahori-Hecke algebra of the symmetric group whose squares are central. In particular, we describe a commutative subalgebra generated by certain non-central square roots of central elements, and the generic existence of a rank-three submodule of the Hecke algebra contained in the square root of the centre, but not in the centre. The generators for this commutative subalgebra include the longest word and elements related to trivial and sign characters of the Hecke algebra. We find elegant expressions for the squares of such generators in terms of both the minimal basis of the centre and the elementary symmetric functions of Murphy elements.

We derive the spectrum of the Laplace–Beltrami operator on the quotient orbifold of the nonhyperbolic triangle groups.

This paper concerns parabolic submonoids of a class of monoids known as singular Artin monoids. The latter class includes the singular braid monoid— a geometric extension of the braid group, which was created for the sole purpose of studying Vassiliev invariants in knot theory. However, those monoids may also be construed (and indeed, are defined) as a formal extension of Artin groups which, in turn, naturally generalise braid groups. It is the case, by van der Lek and Paris, that standard parabolic subgroups of Artin groups are canonically isomorphic to Artin groups. This naturally invites us to consider whether the same holds for parabolic submonoids of singular Artin monoids. We show that it is in fact true when the corresponding Coxeter matrix is of ‘type FC’ hence generalising Corran's result in the ‘finite type’ case.

The partial automorphism monoid of an inverse semigroup is an inverse monoid consisting of all isomorphisms between its inverse subsemigroups. We prove that a tightly connected fundamental inverse semigroup S with no isolated nontrivial subgroups is lattice determined ‘modulo semilattices’ and if T is an inverse semigroup whose partial automorphism monoid is isomorphic to that of S, then either S and T are isomorphic or they are dually isomorphic chains relative to the natural partial order; a similar result holds if T is any semigroup and the inverse monoids consisting of all isomorphisms between subsemigroups of S and T, respectively, are isomorphic. Moreover, for these results to hold, the conditions that S be tightly connected and have no isolated nontrivial subgroups are essential.

An automorphism group of a graph is said to be s-regular if it acts regularly on the set of s-arcs in the graph. A graph is s-regular if its full automorphism group is s-regular. For a connected cubic symmetric graph X of order 2pn for an odd prime p, we show that if p ≠ 5, 7 then every Sylow p-subgroup of the full automorphism group Aut(X) of X is normal, and if p ≠3 then every s-regular subgroup of Aut(X) having a normal Sylow p-subgroup contains an (s − 1)-regular subgroup for each 1 ≦ s ≦ 5. As an application, we show that every connected cubic symmetric graph of order 2pn is a Cayley graph if p > 5 and we classify the s-regular cubic graphs of order 2p2 for each 1≦ s≦ 5 and each prime p. as a continuation of the authors' classification of 1-regular cubic graphs of order 2p2. The same classification of those of order 2p is also done.

Palindromes are those reduced words of free products of groups that coincide with their reverse words. We prove that a free product of groups G has infinite palindromic width, provided that G is not the free product of two cyclic groups of order two (Theorem 2.4). This means that there is no uniform bound k such that every element of G is a product of at most k palindromes. Earlier, the similar fact was established for non-abelian free groups. The proof of Theorem 2.4 makes use of the ideas by Rhemtulla developed for the study of the widths of verbal subgroups of free products.

Let G be a finite p-group, and let M(G) be the subgroup generated by the non-central conjugacy classes of G of minimal size. We prove that this subgroup has class at most 3. A similar result is noted for nilpotent Lie algebras.

Let (M, G) be a pair of groups, in which M is a normal subgroup of G such that G/M and M/Z(M, G) are of orders pm and pn. respectively. In 1998, Ellis proved that the commutator subgroup [M, G] has order at most pn(n + 2 m−1)/2.

In the present paper by assuming /[M, G] = pn(n+2m−1)/2, we determine the pair (M, G). An upper bound is obtained for the Schur multiplier of the pair (M, G), which generalizes the work of Green (1956).

It is shown that the complex semigroup algebra of a free monoid of rank at least two is *-primitive, where * denotes the involution on the algebra induced by word-reversal on the monoid.

In this paper we determine the smallest equivalence relation on a multialgebra for which the factor multialgebra is a universal algebra satisfying a given identity. We also establish an important property for the factor multialgebra (of a multialgebra) modulo this relation.

To any given balanced semigroup identity U ≈ W a number of polyhedral convex cones are associated. In this setting an algorithm is proposed which determines whether the given identity is satisfied in the bicylic semigroup or in the semigroup . The semigroups BC and E deserve our attention because a semigroup variety contains a simple semigroup which is not completely simple (respectively, which is idempotent free) if and only if this variety contains BC (respectively, E). Therefore, for a given identity U ≈ W it is decidable whether or not the variety determined by U ≈ W contains a simple semigroup which is not completely simple (respectively, which is idempotent free).

A subgroup H of a group G is said to be permutable if HX = XH for each subgroup X of G, and the group G is called quasihamiltonian if all its subgroups are permutable. We shall say that G is a Q F-group if every subgroup H of G contains a subgroup K of finite index which is permutable in G. It is proved that every locally finite Q F-group contains a quasihamiltonian subgroup of finite index. In the proof of this result we use a theorem by Buckley, Lennox, Neumann, Smith and Wiegold concerning the corresponding problem when permutable subgroups are replaced by normal subgroups: if G is a locally finite group such that H/HG is finite for every subgroup H, then G contains an abelian subgroup of finite index.

In this article, a Blackburn group refers to a finite non-Dedekind group for which the intersection of all nonnormal subgroups is not the trivial subgroup. By completing the arguments of M. Hertweck, we show that all conjugacy class preserving automorphisms of Blackburn groups are inner automorphisms.

Valuated Butler groups of finite rank are investigated. The valuated B2-groups are both epic images and pure subgroups of completely decomposable valuated groups of finite rank (Theorem 3.1). However, there are fundamental changes in the theory of Butler groups when valuations are involved. We introduce valuated B1-groups and show that they are valuated B2-groups. Surprisingly, valuated B2-groups of rank greater than 1 need not be valuated B1 -groups, unless they carry a special kind valuation, see Theorem 7.1. Theorem 6.5 gives a full characterization of valuated B1 -groups of finite rank, generalizing Bican's characterization of Butler groups.

Let F be a field of characteristic p and G a group containing at least one element of order p. It is proved that the group of units of the group algebra FG is a bounded Engel group if and only if FG is a bounded Engel algebra, and that this is the case if and only if G is nilpotent and has a normal subgroup H such that both the factor group G/H and the commutator subgroup H′ are finite p–groups.

Let M be a reductive algebraic monoid with zero and unit group G. We obtain a description of the submonoid generated by the idempotents of M. In particular, we find necessary and sufficient conditions for M\G to be idempotent generated.