Idempotents and one-sided units: Lattice invariants and a semigroup of functors on the category of monoids

Abstract

For a monoid $M$, we denote by $\mathbb G(M)$ the group of units, $\mathbb E(M)$ the submonoid generated by the idempotents, and $\mathbb G_L(M)$ and $\mathbb G_R(M)$ the submonoids consisting of all left or right units. Writing $\mathcal M$ for the (monoidal) category of monoids, $\mathbb G$, $\mathbb E$, $\mathbb G_L$ and $\mathbb G_R$ are all (monoidal) functors $\mathcal M\to\mathcal M$. There are other natural functors associated to submonoids generated by combinations of idempotents and one- or two-sided units. The above functors generate a monoid with composition as its operation. We show that this monoid has size $15$, and describe its algebraic structure. We also show how to associate certain lattice invariants to a monoid, and classify the lattices that arise in this fashion. A number of examples are discussed throughout, some of which are essential for the proofs of the main theoretical results.