Free idempotent generated semigroups: The word problem and structure via gain graphs

Abstract

Building on the previous extensive study of Yang, Gould and the present author, we provide a more precise insight into the group-theoretical ramifications of the word problem for free idempotent generated semigroups over finite biordered sets. We prove that such word problems are in fact equivalent to the problem of computing intersections of cosets of certain subgroups of direct products of maximal subgroups of the free idempotent generated semigroup in question, thus providing decidability of those word problems under group-theoretical assumptions related to the Howson property and the coset intersection property. We also provide a basic sketch of the global semigroup-theoretical structure of an arbitrary free idempotent generated semigroup, including the characterisation of Green’s relations and the key parameters of non-regular \({\cal D}\)-classes. In particular, we prove that all Schützenberger groups of IG(ℇ) for a finite biordered set ℇ must be among the divisors of the maximal subgroups of IG(ℇ).