Topics in combinatorial semigroup theory

Abstract

In this thesis we discuss various topics from Combinatorial Semigroup Theory: automaton semigroups; finiteness conditions and their preservation under certain semigroup theoretic notions of index; Markov semigroups; word-hyperbolic semigroups; decision problems for finitely presented and one-relator monoids. First, in order to show that general ideas from Combinatorial Semigroup Theory can apply to uncountable semigroups, at the beginning of the thesis we discuss semigroups with Bergman’s property. We prove that an automaton semigroup generated by a Cayley machine of a finite semigroup S is itself finite if and only if S is aperiodic, which yields a new characterisation of finite aperiodic monoids. Using this, we derive some further results about Cayley automaton semigroups. We investigate how various semigroup finiteness conditions, linked to the notion of ideal, are preserved under finite Rees and Green indices. We obtain a surprising result that J = D is preserved by supersemigroups of finite Green index, but it is not preserved by subsemigroups of finite Rees index even in the finitely generated case. We also consider the question of preservation of hopficity for finite Rees index. We prove that in general hopficity is preserved neither by finite Rees index subsemigroups, nor by finite Rees index extensions. However, under finite generation assumption, hopficity is preserved by finite Rees index extensions. Still, there is an example of a finitely generated hopfian semigroup with a non-hopfian subsemigroup of finite Rees index. We prove also that monoids presented by confluent context-free monadic rewriting systems are word-hyperbolic, and provide an example of such a monoid, which does not admit a word-hyperbolic structure with uniqueness. This answers in the negative a question of Duncan & Gilman. We initiate in this thesis a study of Markov semigroups. We investigate how the property of being Markov is preserved under finite Rees and Green indices. For various semigroup properties P we examine whether P , ¬P are Markov properties, and whether P is decidable for finitely presented and one-relator monoids.