Distributive inverse semigroups and non-commutative Stone dualities

We develop the theory of distributive inverse semigroups as the analogue of distributive lattices without top element and prove that they are in a duality with those etale groupoids having a spectral space of identities, where our spectral spaces are not necessarily compact. We prove that Boolean inverse semigroups can be characterized as those distributive inverse semigroups in which every prime filter is an ultrafilter; we also provide a topological characterization in terms of Hausdorffness. We extend the notion of the patch topology to distributive inverse semigroups and prove that every distributive inverse semigroup has a Booleanization. As applications of this result, we give a new interpretation of Paterson's universal groupoid of an inverse semigroup and by developing the theory of what we call tight coverages, we also provide a conceptual foundation for Exel's tight groupoid.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1107.551

A non-commutative generalization of Stone duality

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 associated with the Cuntz groupoid is the strong orthogonal completion of the polycyclic (or Cuntz) monoid and so its group of units is a Thompson group

Non-commutative Stone duality: inverse semigroups, topological groupoids and C*-algebras

We study a non-commutative generalization of Stone duality that connects a class of inverse semigroups, called Boolean inverse $\wedge$-semigroups, with a class of topological groupoids, called Hausdorff Boolean groupoids. Much of the paper is given over to showing that Boolean inverse $\wedge$-semigroups arise as completions of inverse semigroups we call pre-Boolean. An inverse $\wedge$-semigroup is pre-Boolean if and only if every tight filter is an ultrafilter, where the definition of a tight filter is obtained by combining work of both Exel and Lenz. A simple necessary condition for a semigroup to be pre-Boolean is derived and a variety of examples of inverse semigroups are shown to satisfy it. Thus the polycyclic inverse monoids, and certain Rees matrix semigroups over the polycyclics, are pre-Boolean and it is proved that the groups of units of their completions are precisely the Thompson-Higman groups $G_{n,r}$. The inverse semigroups arising from suitable directed graphs are also pre-Boolean and the topological groupoids arising from these graph inverse semigroups under our non-commutative Stone duality are the groupoids that arise from the Cuntz-Krieger $C^{\ast}$-algebras.Comment: The presentation has been sharpened up and some minor errors correcte

Varieties of \u3cem\u3eP\u3c/em\u3e-Restriction Semigroups

The restriction semigroups, in both their one-sided and two-sided versions, have arisen in various fashions, meriting study for their own sake. From one historical perspective, as “weakly E-ample” semigroups, the definition revolves around a “designated set” of commuting idempotents, better thought of as projections. This class includes the inverse semigroups in a natural fashion. In a recent paper, the author introduced P-restriction semigroups in order to broaden the notion of “projection” (thereby encompassing the regular *-semigroups). That study is continued here from the varietal perspective introduced for restriction semigroups by V. Gould. The relationship between varieties of regular *-semigroups and varieties of P-restriction semigroups is studied. In particular, a tight relationship exists between varieties of orthodox *-semigroups and varieties of “orthodox” P-restriction semigroups, leading to concrete descriptions of the free orthodox P-restriction semigroups and related structures. Specializing further, new, elementary paths are found for descriptions of the free restriction semigroups, in both the two-sided and one-sided cases