Semigroups of left quotients—the uniqueness problem (original) (raw)

Let S be a subsemigroup of a semigroup Q. Then Q is a semigroup of left quotients of S if every element of Q can be written as a*b, where a lies in a group -class of Q and a* is the inverse of a in this group; in addition, we insist that every element of S satisfying a weak cancellation condition named square-cancellable lie in a subgroup of Q.J. B. Fountain and M. Petrich gave an example of a semigroup having two non-isomorphic semigroups of left quotients. More positive results are available if we restrict the classes of semigroups from which the semigroups of left quotients may come. For example, a semigroup has at most one bisimple inverse ω-semigroup of left quotients. The crux of the matter is the restrictions to a semigroup S of Green's relations ℛ and ℒ in a semigroup of quotients of S. With this in mind we give necessary and sufficient conditions for two semigroups of left quotients of S to be isomorphic under an isomorphism fixing S pointwise.The above result is then u...