UNDECIDABILITY, AUTOMATA, AND PSEUDOVARITIES OF FINITE SEMIGROUPS

Abstract

The author proves for each of the operations # equalling *, °, **, □ or m, there exist pseudovarieties of finite semigroups [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] with decidable membership problems, such that [Formula: see text] has an undecidable membership problem. In addition, if [Formula: see text] denotes the pseudovariety of all finite aperiodic semigroups, [Formula: see text] denotes the pseudovariety of all finite groups, and [Formula: see text](E) denotes the pseudovariety of all finite aperiodic semigroups satisfying the finite number of equations E, then it is proved that there exists E such that [Formula: see text](E) has an undecidable membership problem. Note [Formula: see text] equals all semigroups of complexity ≤1. Section 6 is expanded into a joint paper with B. Steinberg, following this paper.