Brandt semigroup explained

In mathematics, Brandt semigroups are completely 0-simple inverse semigroups. In other words, they are semigroups without proper ideals and which are also inverse semigroups. They are built in the same way as completely 0-simple semigroups:

Let G be a group and

be non-empty sets. Define a matrix of dimension with entries in

Then, it can be shown that every 0-simple semigroup is of the form

with the operation .

As Brandt semigroups are also inverse semigroups, the construction is more specialized and in fact, I = J (Howie 1995). Thus, a Brandt semigroup has the form

with the operation , where the matrix is diagonal with only the identity element e of the group G in its diagonal.

Remarks

1) The idempotents have the form (i, e, i) where e is the identity of G.

2) There are equivalent ways to define the Brandt semigroup. Here is another one:

ac = bc ≠ 0 or ca = cb ≠ 0 ⇒ a = b

ab ≠ 0 and bc ≠ 0 ⇒ abc ≠ 0

If a ≠ 0 then there are unique x, y, z for which xa = a, ay = a, za = y.

For all idempotents e and f nonzero, eSf ≠ 0

See also

• Special classes of semigroups

References

• .