Varieties generated by unstable involution semigroups with continuum many subvarieties
Edmond W. H. Lee · Comptes Rendus Mathématique · 2017
Over the years, several finite semigroups have been found to generate varieties with continuum many subvarieties. However, finite involution semigroups that generate varieties with continuum many subvarieties seem much rarer; in fact, only one example—an inverse semigroup of order 165—has so far been published. Nevertheless, it is shown in the present article that there are many smaller examples among involution semigroups that are unstable in the sense that the varieties they generate contain some involution semilattice with nontrivial unary operation. The most prominent examples are the unstable finite involution semigroups that are inherently non-finitely based, the smallest ones of which are of order six. It follows that the join of two finitely generated varieties of involution semigroups with finitely many subvarieties can contain continuum many subvarieties.