Properties of congruence lattices of graph inverse semigroups

Abstract

From any directed graph $E$ one can construct the graph inverse semigroup $G(E)$, whose elements, roughly speaking, correspond to paths in $E$. Wang and Luo showed that the congruence lattice $L(G(E))$ of $G(E)$ is upper-semimodular for every graph $E$, but can fail to be lower-semimodular for some $E$. We provide a simple characterization of the graphs $E$ for which $L(G(E))$ is lower-semimodular. We also describe those $E$ such that $L(G(E))$ is atomistic, and characterize the minimal generating sets for $L(G(E))$ when $E$ is finite and simple.