Expansions, free inverse semigroups, and Schützenberger product

AbstractIn this paper we shall present a new construction of the free inverse monoid on a set X. Contrary to the previous constructions of [9, 11], our construction is symmetric and originates from classical ideas of language theory. The ingredients of this construction are the free group on X and the relation that associates to a word w of the free monoid on X, the set of all pairs (u, v) such that uv = w. It follows at once from our construction that the free inverse monoid on X can be naturally embedded into the Schützenberger product of two free groups of basis X. We shall also give some connections with the theory of expansions as developed by Rhodes and Birget [2, 3]