Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 November 2000
The structure of an inverse monoid can bedetermined by the complete set of Schützenberger graphs of a presentation. Necessary andsufficient conditions for a collection of inverse X-graphs to be the complete set ofSchützenberger graphs of some inverse monoid presentation are established and decidabilityresults are obtained. Conditions for a single inverse X-graph to be a Schu¨tzenbergergraph for some presentation are also obtained, and both problems are restricted to the case ofClifford monoids and E-unitary inverse monoids. Decidability and undecidability results are obtainedfor the case of finite graphs. It is also proved that the problem of embedding a finite inverseX-graph in the Cayley graph of a group is undecidable.