Global Left Loop Structures on Spheres

On the unit sphere $\mathbb{S}$ in a real Hilbert space $\mathbf{H}$, we derive a binary operation $\odot$ such that $(\mathbb{S},\odot)$ is a power-associative Kikkawa left loop with two-sided identity $\mathbf{e}_0$, i.e., it has the left inverse, automorphic inverse, and $A_l$ properties. The operation $\odot$ is compatible with the symmetric space structure of $\mathbb{S}$. $(\mathbb{S},\odot)$ is not a loop, and the right translations which fail to be injective are easily characterized. $(\mathbb{S},\odot)$ satisfies the left power alternative and left Bol identities ``almost everywhere'' but not everywhere. Left translations are everywhere analytic; right translations are analytic except at $-\mathbf{e}_0$ where they have a nonremovable discontinuity. The orthogonal group $O(\mathbf{H})$ is a semidirect product of $(\mathbb{S},\odot)$ with its automorphism group (cf. http://www.arxiv.org/abs/math.GR/9907085). The left loop structure of $(\mathbb{S},\odot)$ gives some insight into spherical geometry.Comment: 18 pages, no figures, 10pt, LaTeX2e, uses amsart.cls & tcilatex.tex. To appear in Comment. Math. Univ. Carolin. (special issue: Proceedings of LOOPS99) Revised version: various fixes and improvements suggested by refere

Inverse semigroups with idempotent-fixing automorphisms

A celebrated result of J. Thompson says that if a finite group $G$ has a fixed-point-free automorphism of prime order, then $G$ is nilpotent. The main purpose of this note is to extend this result to finite inverse semigroups. An earlier related result of B. H. Neumann says that a uniquely 2-divisible group with a fixed-point-free automorphism of order 2 is abelian. We similarly extend this result to uniquely 2-divisible inverse semigroups.Comment: 7 pages in ijmart styl

Torsors and ternary Moufang loops arising in projective geometry

We give an interpretation of the construction of torsors from preceding work (Bertram, Kinyon: Associative Geometries. I, J. Lie Theory 20) in terms of classical projective geometry. For the Desarguesian case, this leads to a reformulation of certain results from lot.cit., whereas for the Moufang case the result is new. But even in the Desarguesian case it sheds new light on the relation between the lattice structure and the algebraic structures of a projective space.Comment: 15 p., 5 figure

An elegant 3-basis for inverse semigroups

It is well known that in every inverse semigroup the binary operation and the unary operation of inversion satisfy the following three identities: [\quad x=(xx')x \qquad \quad (xx')(y'y)=(y'y)(xx') \qquad \quad (xy)z=x(yz"). ] The goal of this note is to prove the converse, that is, we prove that an algebra of type $$ satisfying these three identities is an inverse semigroup and the unary operation coincides with the usual inversion on such semigroups.Comment: 4 pages; v.2: fixed abstract; v.3: final version with minor changes suggested by referee, to appear in Semigroup Foru