JOURNAL OF LIE THEORY, vol.25, no.3, pp.753-774, 2015 (SCI-Expanded)
For a finite dimensional connected Lie group G with Lie algebra g, we consider a Lie-generating Lie wedge W subset of g. If S is a Lie subsemigroup of G with subtangent wedge W we give sufficient conditions for S to be free on small enough local semigroups U boolean AND S in the sense that continuous local homomorphisms extend to global ones on S. The constructions involve developing a homotopy theory of U boolean AND S-directed paths. We also consider settings where the free construction leads to a simply connected covering of S.