Involution matchings, the semigroup of orientation-preserving and orientation-reversing mappings, and inverse covers of the full transformation semigroup

Abstract

We continue the study of permutations of a finite regular semigroup that map each element to one of its inverses, providing a complete description in the case of semigroups whose idempotent generated subsemigroup is a union of groups. We show, in two ways, how to construct an involution matching on the semigroup of all transformations which either preserve or reverse orientation of a finite cycle. Finally, by way of application, we prove that finite full transformation semigroups have no cover by inverse semigroups that is closed under intersection.