On the isomorphism problem for power semigroups

Abstract

Let $\mathcal P(S)$ be the semigroup obtained by equipping the family of all non-empty subsets of a (multiplicatively written) semigroup $S$ with the operation of setwise multiplication induced by $S$ itself. We call a subsemigroup $P$ of $\mathcal P(S)$ downward complete if any element of $S$ lies in at least one set $X \in P$ and any non-empty subset of a set in $P$ is still in $P$. We obtain, for a commutative semigroup $S$, a characterization of the cancellative elements of a downward complete subsemigroup of $\mathcal P(S)$ in terms of the cancellative elements of $S$. Consequently, we show that, if $H$ and $K$ are cancellative semigroups and either of them is commutative, then every isomorphism from a downward complete subsemigroup of $\mathcal P(H)$ to a downward complete subsemigroup of $\mathcal P(K)$ restricts to an isomorphism from $H$ to $K$. This solves a special case of a problem of Tamura and Shafer from the late 1960s and generalizes a recent result by Bienvenu and Geroldinger, where it is assumed, among other conditions, that $H$ and $K$ are numerical monoids.