We introduce ‘generalised higher-rank k-graphs’ as a class of categories equipped with a notion of size. They extend not only higher-rank k-graphs, but also the Levi categories introduced by the first author as a categorical setting for graphs of groups. We prove that examples of generalised higher-rank k-graphs can be constructed using Zappa–Szép products of groupoids and higher-rank graphs.

This is the first of three papers in which we generalise the classical McAlister structure theory for E-unitary inverse semigroups to those 0-E-unitary inverse semigroups which admit a 0-restricted, idempotent pure prehomomorphism to a primitive inverse semigroup. In this paper, we concentrate on finding necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of such prehomomorphisms in the case of 0-E-unitary inverse monoids. A class of inverse monoids which satisfy our conditions automatically are those which are unambiguous except at zero, such as the polycyclic monoids.

A correspondence is established between a class of coverings of an inverse semigroup S and a class of embeddings of S, generalising results of McAlister and Reilly on E-unitary covers of inverse semigroups.

In this paper we provide a new, abstract characterisation of classical Rees matrix semigroups over monoids with zero. The corresponding abstract class of semigroups is obtained by abstracting a number of algebraic properties from completely 0-simple semigroups: in particular, the relationship between arbitrary elements and idempotents.

In this paper we will study the properties of a natural partial order which may bedefined on an arbitrary abundant semigroup: in the case of regular semigroups werecapture the order introduced by Nambooripad [24]. For abelian PP rings our order coincides with a relation introduced by Sussman [25], Abian [1, 2] and further studied by Chacron [7]. Burmistroviˇ [6] investigated Sussman's order on separative semigroups. In the abundant case his order coincides with ours: some order theoretic properties of such semigroups may be found in a paper by Burgess [5].

McAlister proved that every regular locally inverse semigroup can be covered by a regular Rees matrix semigroup over an inverse semigroup by means of a homomorphism which is locally an isomorphism. We generalize this result to the class of semigroups with local units whose local submonoids have commuting idempotents and possessing what we term a ‘McAlister sandwich function’.

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 20M10. Secondary 20M17

We construct the freest idempotent-pure expansion of an inverse semigroup, generalizing an expansion of Margolis and Meakin for the group case. We also generalize the Birget-Rhodes prefix expansion to inverse semigroups with an application to partial actions of inverse semigroups. In the process of generalizing the latter expansion, we are led to a new class of idempotent-pure homomorphisms which we term F-morphisms. These play the same role in the theory of idempotent-pure homomorphisms that F-inverse monoids play in the theory of E-unitary inverse semigroups.

Recently considerable attention has been paid to the study of locally inverse regular semigroups. McAlister [14] obtained a description of such semigroups as locally isomorphic images of regular Rees matrix semigroups over an inverse semigroup. The class of abundant semigroups originally arose from ‘homological’ considerations in the theory of S-systems: they are the semigroup theoretic analogue of PP-rings. Cancellative monoids, full subsemigroups of regular semigroups as well as the multiplicative semigroups of PP rings are abundant. The aim of this paper is to show how the structure theory described above for regular semigroups may be generalised to a class of abundant semigroups.