We prove the following results: (1) Every group is a maximal subgroup of some free idempotent generated semigroup. (2) Every finitely presented group is a maximal subgroup of some free idempotent generated semigroup arising from a finite semigroup. (3) Every group is a maximal subgroup of some free regular idempotent generated semigroup. (4) Every finite group is a maximal subgroup of some free regular idempotent generated semigroup arising from a finite regular semigroup. As a technical prerequisite for these results we establish a general presentation for the maximal subgroups based on a Reidemeister-Schreier type rewriting.

This paper shows that every Plactic algebra of finite rank admits a finite Gröbner-Shirshov basis. The result is proved by using the combinatorial properties of Young tableaux to construct a finite complete rewriting system for the corresponding Plactic monoid, which also yields the corollaries that Plactic monoids of finite rank have finite derivation type and satisfy the homological finiteness properties left and right FP ∞ . Also, answering a question of Zelmanov, we apply this rewriting system and other techniques to show that Plactic monoids of finite rank are biautomatic.

Abstract. We study the ideals of the partition, Brauer, and Jones monoid, establishing various combinatorial results on generating sets and idempotent generating sets via an analysis of their Graham-Houghton graphs. We show that each proper ideal of the partition monoid Pn is an idempotent generated semigroup, and obtain a formula for the minimal number of elements (and the minimal number of idempotent elements) needed to generate these semigroups. In particular, we show that these two numbers, which are called the rank and idempotent rank (respectively) of the semigroup, are equal to each other, and we characterize the generating sets of this minimal cardinality. We also characterize and enumerate the minimal idempotent generating sets for the largest proper ideal of Pn, which coincides with the singular part of Pn. Analogous results are proved for the ideals of the Brauer and Jones monoids; in each case, the rank and idempotent rank turn out to be equal, and all the minimal generating sets are described. We also show how the rank and idempotent rank results obtained, when applied to the corresponding twisted semigroup algebras (the partition, Brauer, and Temperley-Lieb algebras), allow one to recover formulae for the dimensions of their cell modules (viewed as cellular algebras) which, in the semisimple case, are formulae for the dimensions of the irreducible representations of the algebras. As well as being of algebraic interest, our results relate to several well-studied topics in graph theory including the problem of counting perfect matchings (which relates to the problem of computing permanents of {0, 1}-matrices and the theory of Pfaffian orientations), and the problem of finding factorizations of Johnson graphs. Our results also bring together several well-known number sequences such as Stirling, Bell, Catalan and Fibonacci numbers.

Let S be a semigroup and let T be a subsemigroup of S. Then T acts on S by left and by right multiplication. If the complement S \ T has finitely many strong orbits by both these actions we say that T has finite Green index in S. This notion of finite index encompasses subgroups of finite index in groups, and also subsemigroups of finite Rees index (complement). Therefore, the question of S and T inheriting various finiteness conditions from each other arises. In this paper we consider and resolve this question for the following finiteness conditions: finiteness, residual finiteness, local finiteness, periodicity, having finitely many right ideals, and having finitely many idempotents.

Abstract. We study groups acting by length-preserving transformations on spaces equipped with asymmetric, partially-defined distance functions. We introduce a natural notion of quasi-isometry for such spaces and exhibit an extension of theŠvarc-Milnor Lemma to this setting. Among the most natural examples of these spaces are finitely generated monoids and semigroups and their Cayley and Schützenberger graphs; we apply our results to show a number of important properties of monoids are quasi-isometry invariants.