We examine a semigroup analogue of the Kumjian–Renault representation of C*-algebras with Cartan subalgebras on twisted groupoids. Specifically, we represent semigroups with distinguished normal subsemigroups as ‘slice-sections’ of groupoid bundles.

An inverse semigroup $S$ is combinatorially factorizable if $S\,=\,TG$ where $T$ is a combinatorial (i.e., $\mathcal{H}$ is the equality relation) inverse subsemigroup of $S$ and $G$ is a subgroup of $S$. This concept was introduced and studied by Mills, especially in the case when $S$ is cryptic (i.e., $\mathcal{H}$ is a congruence on $S$). Her approach is mainly analytical considering subsemigroups of a cryptic inverse semigroup.

We start with a combinatorial inverse monoid and a factorizable Clifford monoid and from an action of the former on the latter construct the semigroups in the title. As a special case, we consider semigroups that are direct products of a combinatorial inverse monoid and a group.

To each discrete left cancellative semigroup S one may associate an inverse semigroup Il(S), often called the left inverse hull of S. We show how the full and reduced C*-algebras of Il(S) are related to the full and reduced semigroup C*-algebras for S, recently introduced by Li, and give conditions ensuring that these algebras are isomorphic. Our picture provides an enhanced understanding of Li's algebras.

We show Exel’s tight representation of an inverse semigroup can be described in terms of joins and covers in the natural partial order. Using this, we show that the ${C}^{\ast } $-algebra of a finitely aligned category of paths, developed by Spielberg, is the tight ${C}^{\ast } $-algebra of a natural inverse semigroup. This includes as a special case finitely aligned higher-rank graphs: that is, for such a higher-rank graph $\Lambda $, the tight ${C}^{\ast } $-algebra of the inverse semigroup associated to $\Lambda $ is the same as the ${C}^{\ast } $-algebra of $\Lambda $.

A semiring is a set $S$ with two binary operations $+ $ and $\cdot $ such that both the additive reduct ${S}_{+ } $ and the multiplicative reduct ${S}_{\bullet } $ are semigroups which satisfy the distributive laws. If $R$ is a ring, then, following Chaptal [‘Anneaux dont le demi-groupe multiplicatif est inverse’, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Ser. A–B 262 (1966), 274–277], ${R}_{\bullet } $ is a union of groups if and only if ${R}_{\bullet } $ is an inverse semigroup if and only if ${R}_{\bullet } $ is a Clifford semigroup. In Zeleznikow [‘Regular semirings’, Semigroup Forum 23 (1981), 119–136], it is proved that if $R$ is a regular ring then ${R}_{\bullet } $ is orthodox if and only if ${R}_{\bullet } $ is a union of groups if and only if ${R}_{\bullet } $ is an inverse semigroup if and only if ${R}_{\bullet } $ is a Clifford semigroup. The latter result, also known as Zeleznikow’s theorem, does not hold in general even for semirings $S$ with ${S}_{+ } $ a semilattice Zeleznikow [‘Regular semirings’, Semigroup Forum 23 (1981), 119–136]. The Zeleznikow problem on a certain class of semirings involves finding condition(s) such that Zeleznikow’s theorem holds on that class. The main objective of this paper is to solve the Zeleznikow problem for those semirings $S$ for which ${S}_{+ } $ is a semilattice.

We prove that the category of boolean inverse monoids is dually equivalent to the category of boolean groupoids. This generalizes the classical Stone duality between boolean algebras and boolean spaces. As an instance of this duality, we show that the boolean inverse monoid Cn associated with the Cuntz groupoid Gn is the strong orthogonal completion of the polycyclic (or Cuntz) monoid Pn. The group of units of Cn is the Thompson group Vn,1.

Inspired by the results of Adin, Postnikov and Roichman, we propose combinatorial Gelfand models for semigroup algebras of some finite semigroups, which include the symmetric inverse semigroup, the dual symmetric inverse semigroup, the maximal factorizable subsemigroup in the dual symmetric inverse semigroup and the factor power of the symmetric group. Furthermore, we extend the Gelfand model for the semigroup algebras of the symmetric inverse semigroup to a Gelfand model for the q-rook monoid algebra.

A one-dimensional tiling is a bi-infinite string on a finite alphabet, and its tiling semigroup is an inverse semigroup whose elements are marked finite substrings of the tiling. We characterize the structure of these semigroups in the periodic case, in which the tiling is obtained by repetition of a fixed primitive word.

We introduce partial actions of weakly left E-ample semigroups, thus extending both the notion of partial actions of inverse semigroups and that of partial actions of monoids. Weakly left E-ample semigroups arise very naturally as subsemigroups of partial transformation semigroups which are closed under the unary operation α↦α+, where α+ is the identity map on the domain of α. We investigate the construction of ‘actions’ from such partial actions, making a connection with the FA-morphisms of Gomes. We observe that if the methods introduced in the monoid case by Megrelishvili and Schröder, and by the second author, are to be extended appropriately to the case of weakly left E-ample semigroups, then we must construct not global actions, but so-called incomplete actions. In particular, we show that a partial action of a weakly left E-ample semigroup is the restriction of an incomplete action. We specialize our approach to obtain corresponding results for inverse semigroups.

Two possible concepts of rank in inverse semigroup theory, the intermediate I-rank and the upper I-rank, are investigated for the finite aperiodic Brandt semigroup. The so-called large I-rank is found for an arbitrary finite Brandt semigroup, and the result is used to obtain the large rank of the inverse semigroup of all proper subpermutations of a finite set.

We give an abstract description of the kernel of a proper primitive inverse congruence on a categorical semigroup. More specifically, we show that it is a *-reflexive, *-unitary, *-dense subsemigroup, and that on a given categorical semigroup there is a one–one correspondence between such subsemigroups and the proper primitive inverse congruences. Our results allow us to give a description of the minimum proper primitive inverse semigroup congruence on a strongly E*-dense categorical semigroup.

We describe which subdirectly irreducible flat algebras arise in the variety generated by an arbitrary class of flat algebras with absorbing bottom element. This is used to give an elementary translation of the universal Horn logic of algebras, partial algebras, and more generally still, partial structures into the equational logic of conventional algebras. A number of examples and corollaries follow. For example, the problem of deciding which finite algebras of some fixed type have a finite basis for their quasi-identities is shown to be equivalent to the finite identity basis problem for the finite members of a finiteiy based variety with definable principal congruences.