Categorically closed countable semigroups

Abstract

In this paper we establish a connection between categorical closedness and topologizability of semigroups. In particular, for a class $\mathsf T_{\!1}\mathsf S$ of $T_1$ topological semigroups we prove that a countable semigroup $X$ with finite-to-one shifts is injectively $\mathsf T_{\!1}\mathsf S$-closed if and only if $X$ is $\mathsf{T_{\!1}S}$-nontopologizable in the sense that every $T_1$ semigroup topology on $X$ is discrete. Moreover, a countable cancellative semigroup $X$ is absolutely $\mathsf T_{\!1}\mathsf S$-closed if and only if every homomorphic image of $X$ is $\mathsf T_{\!1}\mathsf S$-nontopologizable. Also, we introduce and investigate a notion of a polybounded semigroup. It is proved that a countable semigroup $X$ with finite-to-one shifts is polybounded if and only if $X$ is $\mathsf T_{\!1}\mathsf S$-closed if and only if $X$ is $\mathsf T_{\!z}\mathsf S$-closed, where $\mathsf T_{\!z}\mathsf S$ is a class of zero-dimensional Tychonoff topological semigroups. We show that polyboundedness provides an automatic continuity of the inversion in $T_1$ paratopological groups and prove that every cancellative polybounded semigroup is a group.