This is the first of two articles studying the structure of left adequate and, more generally, of left Ehresmann monoids. Motivated by a careful analysis of normal forms, we introduce here a concept of proper for a left adequate monoid M. In fact, our notion is that of T-proper, where T is a submonoid of M. We show that any left adequate monoid M has an X*-proper cover for some set X, that is, there is a left adequate monoid [Formula: see text] that is X*-proper, and an idempotent separating surjective morphism [Formula: see text] of the appropriate type. Given this result, we may deduce that the free left adequate monoid on any set X is X*-proper. In a subsequent paper, we show how to construct T-proper left adequate monoids from any monoid T acting via order-preserving maps on a semilattice with identity, and prove that the free left adequate monoid is of this form. An alternative description of the free left adequate monoid will appear in a paper of Kambites. We show how to obtain the labeled trees appearing in his result from our structure theorem. Our results apply to the wider class of left Ehresmann monoids, and we give them in full generality. We also indicate how to obtain some of the analogous results in the two-sided case. This paper and its sequel, and the two of Kambites on free (left) adequate semigroups, demonstrate the rich but accessible structure of (left) adequate semigroups and monoids, introduced with startling insight by Fountain some 30 years ago.
It is known that an Ehresmann monoid P(T, Y) may be constructed from a monoid T acting via order-preserving maps on both sides of a semilattice Y with identity, such that the actions satisfy an appropriate compatibility criterion. Our main result shows that if T is cancellative and equidivisible (as is the case for the free monoid X *), the monoid P(T, Y) not only is Ehresmann but also satisfies the stronger property of being adequate. Fixing T , Y and the actions, we characterise P(T, Y) as being unique in the sense that it is the initial object in a suitable category of Ehresmann monoids. We also prove that the operator P defines an expansion of Ehresmann monoids.
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