Every poset with 0 is determined by various semigroups of isotone selfmaps which preserve 0. Two theorems along these lines are given and applied to some recent results concerning relation semigroups on topological spaces.

A classical result of M. Zorn states that a finite group is nilpotent if and only if it satisfies an Engel condition. If this is the case, it satisfies almost all Engel conditions. We shall give a similar description of the class of p-soluble groups of p-length one by a sequence of commutator identities.

We determine which varieties of commutative semigroups have the weak or strong amalgamation property. These are precisely the varieties of inflations of semilattices of abelian groups.

In a previous paper ([14]) the author showed that a free inverse semigroup is determined by its lattice of inverse subsemigroups, in the sense that for any inverse semigroup T, implies . (In fact, the lattice isomorphism is induced by an isomorphism of upon T.) In this paper the results leading up to that theorem are generalized (from completely semisimple to arbitrary inverse semigroups) and applied to various classes, including simple, fundamental and E-unitary inverse semigroups. In particular it is shown that the free product of two groups in the category of inverse semigroups is determined by its lattice of inverse subsemigroups.

An example is given to show that a class of finite soluble groups that is both a Fitting class and a Schunck class need not be a formation. The novel feature of this class is that it is defined by imposing conditions on complemented chief factors of groups in it: this technique usually does not give rise to Fitting classes that are not formations.

It is shown that no proper ideal of a free inverse semigroup is free and that every isomorphism between ideals is induced by a unique automorphism of the whole semigroup. In addition, necessary and sufficient conditions are given for two principal ideals to be isomorhic.

It is shown that the simple groups G2(q), q = 3f, are characterized by their character table. This result completes characterization of the simple groups G2(q), q odd, by their character table.

Let R be a ring in which the multiplicative semigroup is completely semisimple. If R has the maximum (respectively, minimum) condition on principal multiplicative ideals. then R is semiprime artinian (respectively, a direct sum of dense rings of finite-rank linear transformations of vector spaces over division rings).

If G, H and B are groups such that G × B ≃ H × B, G/[G, G]. Z(G) is free abelian and B is finitely generated abelian, then G ≃ H. The equivalence classes of triples (Vξ,A) where Vand A are finitely generated free abelian groups and ξ: V⊗ V → A is a bilinear form constitute a semigroup B undera natural external orthogonal sum. This semigroup B is cancellative. A cancellation theorem for class 2 nilpotent groups is deduced.

We show that in a regular ring (R, +, ·), with idempotent set E, the following conditions are equivalent: (i) (ii) (R, ·) is orthodox. (iii) (R, ·) is a semilattice of groups. These and other conditions are also considered for regular semigroups, and for semirings (S, +, · ), in which (S, +) is an inverse semigroup. Examples are given to show that they are not equivalent in these cases.

Let E be a band and ε a compatible partition on it. If S is an orthodox semigroup with band of idempotents E such that there exists a congruence on S inducing the partition ε then we define a homomorphism of S into a Hall semigroup whose kernel is the greatest congruence on S inducing the partition ε. On the other hand, we define a subsemigroup of the Hall semigroup WE possessing the property that S is an othodox semigroup with band of idempotents E which has a congruence inducing ε if and only if the range of the Hall homomoprhism of S into WE is contained in .

We say that a regulär semigroup S is a coetension of a (regular) semigroup T by rectangular bands if there is a homomorphism ϕ: S → T from S onto T such that, for each e = e2 ∈ S, e(ϕ ϕ-1) is a rectangular band. Regular semigroups which are coextesions of pseudo-inverse semigroups by rectangular bands may be characterized as those regular semigroups S with the property that, for each e = e2 ∈ S, ω(e) = {f = f2 ∈ S: ef = f} and ωl(e) = {f = f2 ∈ S: fe = f} are bands: this paper is concerned with a study of such semigroups.

In this paper we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions on a regular semigroup in order that it should be an idempotent separating homomorphic image of a full subsemigroup of the direct product of a group and a fundamental or combinatorial regular semigroup. The main tool used is the concept of a prehomomrphism θ: S → T between regular semigroups. This is a mapping such that (ab) θ ≦ aθ bθ in the natural partial order on T.

Let Out (RG) be the set of all outer R-automorphisms of a group ring RG of arbitrary group G over a commutative ring R with 1. It is proved that there is a bijective correspondence between the set Out (RG) and a set consisting of R(G × G)-isomorphism classes of R-free R(G × G)-modules of a certain type. For the case when G is finite and R is the ring of algebraic integers of an algebraic number field the above result implies that there are only finitely many conjugacy classes of group bases in RG. A generalization of a result due to R. Sandling is also provided.

The main theorem of this paper shows that the lattice of congruences contained is some equivalence π on a semigroup S can be decomposed into a subdirect product of sublattices of the congruence lattices on the ‘prinipal π-facotrsρ of S—the semigroups formed by adjoining zeroes to the π-classes—whenever these are well-defined. The theorem is then applied to various equavalences and classes of semigroups to give some new results and alternative proofs of known ones.

If L is any semilattice, let TL denote the Munn semigroup of L, and Aut (L) the automorphism group of L.

We show that every semilattice L can be isomorphically embedded as a convex subsemilattice in a semilattice L' which has a transitive automorphism group in such a way that (i) every partial isomorphism α of L can be extended to an automorphism of L', (ii) every partial isomorphism: α: eL → fL of L can be extended to a partial isomorphism αL′: eL′ → fL′ of L′ such that TL → TL′, α → αL′ embeds TL' isomorphically in TL′, (iii) every automorphism γ of L can be extended to an automorphism γL′ of L′ such that Aut (L) → Aut (L′), γ → γL embeds Aut (L) isomorphically in Aut (L′).

The main result is that d(Ssm) = n+2 for every finite non-abelian two-generator simple group S of order s and every integer n > 0. This is applied to give a very close estimate on d(Gn) for any finite group G whose simple images are two-generator. The article is based on the author's previous papers with similar titles.

A group G is termed conjugacy separable (c.s.) if any pair of distinct conjugacy classes may be mapped to distinct conjugacy classes in some finite epimorph of G. The free product of A and B with cyclic amalgamated subgroup H is shown to be c.s. if A and B are both free, or are both finitely generated nilpotent groups. Further, one-relator groups with nontrivial center and HNN extensions with c.s. base group and finite associated subgroups are also c.s.

If w is a group word in n variables, x1,…,xn, then R. Horowitz has proved that under an arbitrary mapping of these variables into a two-dimensional special linear group, the trace of the image of w can be expressed as a polynomial with integer coefficients in traces of the images of 2n−1 products of the form xσ1xσ2…xσm 1 ≤ σ1 < σ2 <… <σm ≤ n. A refinement of this result is proved which shows that such trace polynomials fall into 2n classes corresponding to a division of n-variable words into 2n classes. There is also a discussion of conditions which two words must satisfy if their images have the same trace for any mapping of their variables into a two-dimensional special linear group over a ring of characteristic zero.

Let P be a partially-ordered set in which every two elements have a common lower bound. It is proved that there exists a lower semilattice L whose elements are labelled with elements of P in such a way that (i) comparable elements of L are labelled with elements of P in the same strict order relation; (ii) each element of P is used as a label and every two comparable elements of P are labels of comparable elements of L; (iii) for any two elements of L with the same label, there is a label-preserving isomorphism between the corresponding principal ideals. Such a structure is called a full, uniform P-labelled semilattice.