Left Reductive Congruences on Semigroups

Abstract

A semigroup S is called a left reductive semigroup if, for all elements a,b∈S, the assumption “xa=xb for all x∈S” implies a=b. A congruence α on a semigroup S is called a left reductive congruence if the factor semigroup S/α is left reductive. In this paper we deal with the left reductive congruences on semigroups. Let S be a semigroup and ϱ a congruence on S. Consider the sequence ϱ (0)⊆ϱ (1)⊆⋯⊆ϱ (n)⊆⋯ of congruences on S, where ϱ (0)=ϱ and, for an arbitrary non-negative integer n, ϱ (n+1) is defined by (a,b)∈ϱ (n+1) if and only if (xa,xb)∈ϱ (n) for all x∈S. We show that \(\bigcup_{i=0}^{\infty}\varrho^{(i)}\subseteq \mathit{lrc}(\varrho )\) for an arbitrary congruence ϱ on a semigroup S, where lrc(ϱ) denotes the least left reductive congruence on S containing ϱ. We focuse our attention on congruences ϱ on semigroups S for which the congruence \(\bigcup_{i=0}^{\infty}\varrho^{(i)}\) is left reductive. We prove that, for a congruence ϱ on a semigroup S, \(\bigcup_{i=0}^{\infty}\varrho^{(i)}\) is a left reductive congruence of S if and only if \(\bigcup_{i=0}^{\infty}\iota_{(S/\varrho)}^{(i)}\) is a left reductive congruence on the factor semigroup S/ϱ (here ι (S/ϱ) denotes the identity relation on S/ϱ). After proving some other results, we show that if S is a Noetherian semigroup (which means that the lattice of all congruences on S satisfies the ascending chain condition) or a semigroup in which S n =S n+1 is satisfied for some positive integer n then the universal relation on S is the only left reductive congruence on S if and only if S is an ideal extension of a left zero semigroup by a nilpotent semigroup. In particular, S is a commutative Noetherian semigroup in which the universal relation on S is the only left reductive congruence on S if and only if S is a finite commutative nilpotent semigroup.