On the structure of symmetric $n$-ary bands

Abstract

We study the class of symmetric $n$-ary bands. These are $n$-ary semigroups $(X,F)$ such that $F$ is invariant under the action of permutations and idempotent, i.e., satisfies $F(x,\ldots,x)=x$ for all $x\in X$. We first provide a structure theorem for these symmetric $n$-ary bands that extends the classical (strong) semilattice decomposition of certain classes of bands. We introduce the concept of strong $n$-ary semilattice of $n$-ary semigroups and we show that the symmetric $n$-ary bands are exactly the strong $n$-ary semilattices of $n$-ary extensions of Abelian groups whose exponents divide $n-1$. Finally, we use the structure theorem to obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for a symmetric $n$-ary band to be reducible to a semigroup.