Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g5fl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T05:17:36.781Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Nilpotents in semigroups of partial transformations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2009

R. P. Sullivan
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Western Australia, Nedlands 4009Australia
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In 1987, Sullivan determined when a partial transformation α of an infinite set X can be written as a product of nilpotent transformations of the same set: he showed that when this is possible and the cardinal of X is regular then α is a product of 3 or fewer nilpotents with index at most 3. Here, we show that 3 is best possible on both counts, consider the corresponding question when the cardinal of X is singular, and investigate the role of nilpotents with index 2. We also prove that the nilpotent-generated semigroup is idempotent-generated but not conversely.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Mathematical Society 1997

References

[1]Clifford, A.H. and Preston, G.B., The algebraic theory of semigroups, Mathematical Surveys 7, vol 1 and 2 (American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 1961 and 1967).Google Scholar
[2]Howie, J.M., ‘The subsemigroup generated by the idempotents of a full transformation semigroup’, J. London Math Soc. 41 (1966), 707716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[3]Howie, J.M., An introduction to semigroup theory (Academic Press, London, 1976).Google Scholar
[4]Howie, J.M., ‘Some subsemigroups of infinite full transformation semigroups’, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 88 (1981), 159167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5]Howie, J.M. and Marques-Smith, M.P.O., ‘A nilpotent-generated semigroup associated with a semigroup of full transformations’, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 108 (1988), 181187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[6]Marques, M.P.O., ‘A congruence-free semigroup associated with an infinite cardinal number’, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 93 (1983), 245257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[7]Marques-Smith, M.P.O. and Sullivan, R.P., ‘Nilpotents and congruences on semigroups of transformation with fixed rank’, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 125 (1995), 399412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8]Reynolds, M.A. and Sullivan, R.P., ‘The ideal structure of idempotent-generated transformation semigroups’, Proc. Edinburgh Math. Soc. 28 (1985), 319331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[9]Sullivan, R.P., ‘Semigroups generated by nilpotent transformations’, J. Algebra 110 (1987), 324343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[10]Williams, N.H., Combinatorial set theory, Studies in Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics 91 (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar