Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2011
An E-unitary inverse semigroup, S, has the property that, if x=S, and e2 = e=S, then (xe)2 = xe implies that x2 = x. As a consequence of this, we can see that S is an extension of its semilattice of idempotents, E, by its maximal group morphic image, G. Thus, following McAlister (1974), we attempt to describe S in terms of E and G. If we extend the semilattice E to a larger semilattice F, we are able to describe S in terms of a semi-direct product of F and G, giving a new interpretation to the approach of Schein (1975).