Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2011
A subsemigroup S of a semigroup Q is a left (right) order in Q if every q ∈ Q can be written as q = a*b(q = ba*) for some a, b ∈S, where a* denotes the inverse of a in a subgroup of Q and if, in addition, every square-cancellable element of S lies in a subgroup of Q. If S is both a left order and a right order in Q, we say that S is an order in Q. We show that if S is a left order in Q and S satisfies a permutation identity xl…xn = x1π…xnπ where 1 < 1π and nπ<n, then S and Q are commutative. We give a characterisation of commutative orders and decide the question of when one semigroup of quotients of a commutative semigroup is a homomorphic image of another. This enables us to show that certain semigroups have maximum and minimum semigroups of quotients. We give examples to show that this is not true in general.