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In mathematics, the four-spiral semigroup is a special semigroup generated by four idempotent elements. This special semigroup was first studied by Karl Byleen in a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Nebraska in 1977. It has several interesting properties: it is one of the most important examples of bi-simple but not completely-simple semigroups; it is also an important example of a fundamental regular semigroup; it is an indispensable building block of bisimple, idempotent-generated regular semigroups. A certain semigroup, called double four-spiral semigroup, generated by five idempotent elements has also been studied along with the four-spiral semigroup.
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Definition
The four-spiral semigroup, denoted by Sp4, is the free semigroup generated by four elements a, b, c, and d satisfying the following eleven conditions:
The first set of conditions imply that the elements a, b, c, d are idempotents. The second set of conditions imply that a R b L c R d where R and L are the Green's relations in a semigroup. The lone condition in the third set can be written as d ωl a, where ωl is a biorder relation defined by Nambooripad. The diagram below summarises the various relations among a, b, c, d:
General elements
Every element of Sp4 can be written uniquely in one of the following forms:
where m and n are non-negative integers and terms in square brackets may be omitted as long as the remaining product is not empty. The forms of these elements imply that Sp4 has a partition Sp4 = A ∪ B ∪ C ∪ D ∪ E where
The sets A, B, C, D are bicyclic semigroups, E is an infinite cyclic semigroup and the subsemigroup D ∪ E is a nonregular semigroup.
Idempotent elements
The set of idempotents of Sp4, is {an, bn, cn, dn : n = 0, 1, 2 ,...} where, a0 = a, b0 = b, c0 = c, d0 = d, and for n = 0, 1, 2 ,....,
The sets of idempotents in the subsemigroups A, B, C, D (there are no idempotents in the subsemigoup E) are respectively:
Four-spiral semigroup as a Rees-matrix semigroup
Let S be the set of all quadruples (r, x, y, s) where r, s, ∈ { 0, 1 } and x and y are nonnegative integers and define a binary operation in S by
The set S with this operation is a Rees matrix semigroup over the bicyclic semigroup, and the four-spiral semigroup Sp4 is isomorphic to S.
Properties
Double four-spiral semigroup
The fundamental double four-spiral semigroup, denoted by DSp4, is the semigroup generated by five elements a, b, c, d, e satisfying the following conditions:
The first set of conditions imply that the elements a, b, c, d, e are idempotents. The second set of conditions state the Green's relations among these idempotents, namely, a R b L c R d L e. The two conditions in the third set imply that e ω a where ω is the biorder relation defined as ω = ωl ∩ ωr.