The action of an inverse semigroup on its Stone-Čech compactification

Abstract: We initiate the study of the Stone-\v{C}ech transformation groupoid $\mathcal{G} = \mathcal{S}\ltimes\beta\mathcal{S}$ of an inverse semigroup $\mathcal{S}$. This groupoid occurs as a model for the inverse semigroup Roe algebra $\mathcal{R}{\mathcal{S}}$ of Lledo and Martinez; in particular, the action of $\mathcal{S}$ on $\beta\mathcal{S}$ is amenable in the sense of Exel and Starling if and only if the reduced C$^*$-algebra $\text{C}^*_r(\mathcal{S})$ is exact. We prove that the properties of being Hausdorff, principal, and effective are all equivalent for $\mathcal{G}$, and give an algebraic condition on $\mathcal{S}$ equivalent to the Hausdorffness of $\mathcal{G}$. Finally, we show that the Hausdorffness of Exel's tight groupoid $\mathcal{G}{\text{tight}}(\mathcal{S})$ is necessary for the Hausdorffness of $\mathcal{G}$.