We introduce strong Morita equivalence for inverse semigroups. This notion encompasses Mark Lawson’s concept of enlargement. Strongly Morita equivalent inverse semigroups have Morita equivalent universal groupoids in the sense of Paterson and hence strongly Morita equivalent universal and reduced C∗-algebras. As a consequence we obtain a new proof of a result of Khoshkam and Skandalis showing t...

Properties such as automaticity, growth and decidability are investigated for the class of finitely generated semigroups which have regular sets of unique normal forms. Knowledge obtained is then applied to the task of demonstrating that a class of semigroups derived from free inverse semigroups under certain closure operations is not automatic. 2000 Mathematics subject classification: primary ...

This paper explores several applications of Möbius functions to the representation theory of finite semigroups. We extend Solomon’s approach to the semigroup algebra of a finite semilattice via Möbius functions to arbitrary finite inverse semigroups. This allows us to explicitly calculate the orthogonal central idempotents decomposing an inverse semigroup algebra into a direct product of matrix...

We define the derivation module for a homomorphism of inverse semigroups, generalizing a construction for groups due to Crowell. For a presentation map from a free inverse semigroup, we can then define its relation module as the kernel of a canonical map from the derivation module to the augmentation module. The constructions are analogues of the first steps in the Gruenberg resolution obtained...

We construct the freest idempotent-pure expansion of an inverse semigroup, generalizing an expansion of Margolis and Meakin for the group case. We also generalize the Birget-Rhodes prefix expansion to inverse semigroups with an application to partial actions of inverse semigroups. In the process of generalizing the latter expansion, we are led to a new class of idempotent-pure homomorphisms whi...

We study algebraic properties of the Brandt λ-extensions of monoids with zero and non-trivial homomorphisms between the Brandt λ-extensions of monoids with zero. We introduce finite, compact topological Brandt λextensions of topological semigroups and countably compact topological Brandt λ-extensions of topological inverse semigroups in the class of topological inverse semigroups and establish ...