Completely simple and inverse semigroups

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the structure of certain types of semigroups. Rees(6),(7) has determined the structure of a completely simple semigroup, and has shown that such a system may be realized as a type of matrix semigroup. Clifford (2) and Schwarz (8) have found conditions, namely, the existence of minimal left and minimal right ideals, under which a simple semigroup is completely simple, and have made a more detailed study of such semigroups. Preston (4), (5) has studied inverse semigroups, in which each non-zero element has a unique relative inverse, and has also considered inverse semigroups which contain minimal right or left ideals. In the present paper we obtain a set of conditions on a simple semigroup, each of which is equivalent to the semigroup being both completely simple and inverse. Section 2 defines the terms used and gives a brief resume of the main results which have already been proved. Section 3 is devoted to our present considerations.