Presentation of a monoid

In algebra, a presentation of a monoid (or semigroup) is a description of a monoid (or semigroup) in terms of a set Σ of generators and a set of relations on the free monoid Σ (or free semigroup Σ+) generated by Σ. The monoid is then presented as the quotient of the free monoid by these relations. This is an analogue of a group presentation in group theory.

As a mathematical structure, a monoid presentation is identical to a string rewriting system (also known as semi-Thue system). Every monoid may be presented by a semi-Thue system (possibly over an infinite alphabet).[1]

A presentation should not be confused with a representation.

Construction

The relations are given as a (finite) binary relation R on Σ. To form the quotient monoid, these relations are extended to monoid congruences as follows.

First, one takes the symmetric closure RR1 of R. This is then extended to a symmetric relation E ⊂ Σ × Σ by defining x ~E y if and only if x = sut and y = svt for some strings u, v, s, t ∈ Σ with (u,v) ∈ RR1. Finally, one takes the reflexive and transitive closure of E, which is then a monoid congruence.

In the typical situation, the relation R is simply given as a set of equations, so that . Thus, for example,

is the equational presentation for the bicyclic monoid, and

is the plactic monoid of degree 2 (it has infinite order). Elements of this plactic monoid may be written as for integers i, j, k, as the relations show that ba commutes with both a and b.

Inverse monoids and semigroups


Presentations of inverse monoids and semigroups can be defined in a similar way using a pair

where

is the free monoid with involution on , and

is a binary relation between words. We denote by (respectively ) the equivalence relation (respectively, the congruence) generated by T.

We use this pair of objects to define an inverse monoid

Let be the Wagner congruence on , we define the inverse monoid

presented by as

In the previous discussion, if we replace everywhere with we obtain a presentation (for an inverse semigroup) and an inverse semigroup presented by .

A trivial but important example is the free inverse monoid (or free inverse semigroup) on , that is usually denoted by (respectively ) and is defined by

or

Notes

  1. Book and Otto, Theorem 7.1.7, p. 149

References

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