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c 2004 Springer
DOI: 10.1007/s00233-004-0145-x
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Abstract
It is shown that the classical decomposition of permutations into disjoint
cycles can be extended to more general mappings by means of path-cycles, and
an algorithm is given to obtain the decomposition. The device is used to obtain
information about generating sets for the semigroup of all singular selfmaps of
Xn = {1, 2, . . . , n} . Let Tn,r = Sn Kn,r , where Sn is the symmetric group
and Kn,r is the set of maps : Xn Xn such that |im()| r . The smallest
number of elements of Kn,r which, together with Sn , generate Tn,r is pr (n) ,
the number of partitions of n with r terms.
Introduction
The full transformation semigroup TX on a set X , the semigroup analogue of
the symmetric group, has been much studied over the last fty years, in both
the nite and innite cases. Here we are concerned solely with the case where
X = Xn = {1, 2, . . . , n}, and we denote the semigroup TXn of all self maps of
Xn by Tn .
The notational diculties one encounters in analysing maps in Tn are
much greater than those one meets in the study of symmetric groups. Graphs
are certainly helpful, but are clumsy on the printed page. Lipscomb (see [7])
was the rst to develop what one might call a linear notation, and over several
papers showed the power of his methods. In this paper we describe an alternative
approach.
In Section 1 we develop a notation for certain primitive elements of Tn
called path-cycles, and describe an algorithm to decompose an arbitrary in Tn
into a product of path-cycles. In the following section we use our techniques to
obtain information about generators in Tn , and in particular give a new proof of
a theorem in [4], that every map in STn = Tn \ Sn (where Sn is the symmetric
group) is a composition of 2 -paths (idempotents of rank n 1 ).
The rst author is supported by the Scientic and Technical Research Council of Turkey
(TUBITAK)
with a NATO (A2) Science Fellowship.
The second author is supported by the TUBITAK
OF2
OF3
Let
=
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 7 9 6 7 4 10 4 3 7
.
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Theorem 2.
Let Tn . Then
OF5
3
r
r5
r1
6r
8r
9r
r
2
In the Lipscomb notation this becomes
(4 3 1 (5 3 1 (1 2) (6 7) (8 9 (9) ,
where (4 3 1, (5 3 1 and (8 9 are (non-maximal) proper paths, while (1 2) ,
(6 7) and (9) are circuits. Our notation gives
[4, 3, 1, 2 | 1] [5, 3 | 3] [6, 7 | 6] [8, 9 | 9]
and has the important advantage that each of the factors is a mapping in its
own right. It should of course be pointed out that Lipscombs notation was
developed primarily to cope with partial maps.
3. Generating sets
It is well known (see [4]) that the full singular transformation semigroup of
degree n , denoted by STn (= Tn \Sn ) , is generated by the set of all 2 -paths
(idempotents of rank n 1 ) in Tn , and that Tn is generated by the set of all 2 path-cycles of Tn . In this section we give an alternative proof using path-cycles,
and give a new generating set for STn and Tn .
Theorem 4.
Let STn . Then there exist proper path-cycles 1 , . . . , k
such that = 1 . . . k .
Proof.
In general, the factors 1 , 2 , . . . , p of will include some cycles,
but there must be at least one proper path-cycle, since is singular. By
Corollary 3, we may suppose that we have re-adjusted the factors so that in
the product 1 . . . p all of the cycles come after the rst of the proper pathcycles. Let 1 = [x1 , . . . , xm | xr ] with xr = x1 . If j = [y1 , . . . , yq | y1 ] is a
cycle factor of , then 1 j = 1 j , where
j = [x1 , y1 , . . . , yq | y1 ] .
Thus each of the cycles j can be replaced by the proper path-cycle j , and
the result is proved.
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Theorem 5.
Proof.
(1)
and, for m 3 ,
[x1 , . . . , xm1 , xm | xm ] = [xm1 , xm | xm ] [x1 , x2 , . . . , xm1 | xm1 ] .
(2)
The result now follows inductively from (1), (2) and Theorem 4.
Theorem 6.
For each m in {2, . . . , n} , the semigroup STn can be generated
by its path-cycles of length m .
Proof.
We show rst that every proper path-cycle of length k can be written
as a product of proper path-cycles of length k + 1 .
Let = [x1 , x2 , . . . , xk | xr ] with r = 1 . If k is odd, dene
= [x1 , x3 , . . . , xk2 , xk , x2 , x4 , . . . , xk1 , xk+1 | xr ]
and
=
if r 3
if r = 2,
Dene
= [xm , xm1 , . . . , x4 , x3 , x1 , x2 | x2 ]
= [x1 , x3 , x4 , . . . , xm1 , xm , x2 | x2 ] .
OF7
It is well known that the set of all the 2 -cycles of Sn generates Sn , and
that the set of all the 3 -cycles of An generates An , the alternating group.
Since STn is an ideal of Tn , it is also clear that every generating set of Tn must
contain a subset which generates Sn .
Theorem 8.
If n m 2 and m is even, then the set of all the m-paths
and m-cycles in Tn generates Tn . If n m 3 and m is odd, then the set of
all the m-paths and m-cycles in Tn generates SAn = STn An .
Proof.
so that
=
if m is even
if m is odd.
Tn,r = Kn,r Sn .
(, Tn )
(3)
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Lemma 9.
A1 A2 . . . Ak
b1 b2 . . . bk
,
C1 C2 . . . Ck
d1 d2 . . . dk
,
Let , Tn .
(4)
for if, for example, |im()| < |im()|, it would follow that
/ , for
contains only elements of rank not exceeding rank () .
Next, we shall show that part() = part() , and from this it will follow
by Lemma 9 that = for some , in Sn . Since , it follows
that for some m and some 1 , 2 , . . . , m+1 in Sn ,
= 1 2 . . . m m+1 .
It is clear from Lemma 9 that the required result holds if m = 1 . If m 2 we
write = m+1 , where
= 1 2 . . . m .
OF9
and so, by (4), |im()| = |im()|. Suppose that , and belong to the
J -class Jr = { Tn : |im()| = r} . Then the elements and m+1 are
non-zero elements in the completely 0 -simple principal factor
Pn,r = Kn,r /(Kn,r1 Kn,r2 . . . Kn,1 ) .
By [5, Lemma 3.3.5], = m+1 R within Pn,r , and so certainly within Tn .
Hence ker() = ker() , and it follows that
part() = part() = part() .
(ii) ( ) If = [x1 , x2 , . . . , xm | xr ] is a path-cycle, dene
= [x1 , xm , xm1 , . . . , x2 | x1 ] Sn .
(5)
and = .
(6)
If def() = 1 and has factors 1 , . . . , p , then all the factors are cycles
except one. By Corollary 3 we may assume that we have rearranged the factors
so that the unique proper factor is
p = [x1 , . . . , xm | xr ] .
Let = p . . . 1 . Then, by (6) and again by Corollary 3,
= p p = [x1 , xr | xr ] .
Hence = = Tn .
( ) Suppose that def() 2 . From (3) we deduce that no with
1 def() < def() can belong to .
Theorem 11.
Let STn with |im()| = r , and let m = n r . Then
there exists Sn such that
im() = {m + 1, m + 2, . . . , n} .
Proof.
If im() = {m + 1, m + 2, . . . , n} , take = [1 | 1] , the identity map.
Otherwise, since {m + 1, . . . , n} contains r elements and |im()| = r , there
exist 1 i1 < < ik m such that {i1 , . . . , ik } = im() {1, . . . , m} . This
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(7)
= ()1 = ()1 m . . . 2 ( 1 1 )2 . . . m
()1 ( m . . . 2 )[1, y1r1 | y1r1 ](2 . . . m )
()1 [1, y1r1 | y1r1 ]( m . . . 2 2 . . . m )
...
()1 [1, y1r1 | y1r1 ] . . . [m, ymrm | ymrm ] .
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(9)
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and so
1 (1 . . . m )1 = [1, m + 1 | m + 1] . . . [m1 , m + 1 | m + 1]m1 +1 . . . m .
Then we consider xm1 +1 = = xm1 +m2 m + 2 , and similarly dene
2 =
[1 | 1]
if xm1 +1 = = xm1 +m2 = m + 2
[m + 2, xm1 +1 | m + 2] otherwise.
cont(Tn,r ) = pr (n).
Proof.
Let Jr . As in the proof of Theorem 10, we can show that
part() = part() for every in Jr . It follows that a set G in Km,r
such that G Sn = Tn,r must contain, for each partition p in Pr (n) , at least
one element such that part() = p . Hence cont() pr (n) , and our proof
is complete.
References
[1] Hardy, G. H. and E. M. Wright, An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers, Fifth Edition, Oxford University Press, 1979.
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Department of Mathematics
Cukurova
University
Adana, Turkey
Mathematical Institute
University of St Andrews
North Haugh
St Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS, U.K.
jmh@st-and.ac.uk
Department of Mathematics
Cukurova
University
Adana, Turkey
hayik@mail.cu.edu.tr