Automatic structures for subsemigroups of Baumslag--Solitar semigroups

This paper studies automatic structures for subsemigroups of Baumslag--Solitar semigroups (that is, semigroups presented by $\ < x,y \mid (yx^m, x^ny)\ >$, where $m$ and $n$ are natural numbers). A geometric argument (a rarity in the field of automatic semigroups) is used to show that if $m \gt n$, all of the finitely generated subsemigroups of this semigroup are [right-] automatic. If $m \lt n$, all of its finitely generated subsemigroups are left-automatic. If $m = n$, there exist finitely generated subsemigroups that are not automatic. An appendix discusses the implications of these results for the theory of Malcev presentations. (A Malcev presentation is a special type of presentation for semigroups embeddable into groups.)