arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Karsten Henckell.
We show that pointlike sets are decidable for the pseudovariety of finite semigroups whose idempotent-generated subsemigroup is R-trivial. Notably, our proof is constructive: we provide an explicit relational morphism which computes the ER-pointlike subsets of a given finite semigroup.
We introduce a generalization of the product expansion of a finite semigroup. As an application, we provide an alternative proof of the decidability of pointlike sets for pseudovarieties consisting of semigroups whose subgroups all belong to a given decidable pseudovariety of groups.
We introduce a general unifying framework for the investigation of pointlike sets. The pointlike functors are considered as distinguished elements of a certain lattice of subfunctors of the power semigroup functor; in particular, we exhibit the pointlike functors as the fixed points of a closure operator induced by an antitone Galois connection between this lattice of functors and the lattice of pseudovarieties. Notably, this provides a characterization of pointlikes which does not mention relational morphisms. Along the way, we formalize various common heuristics and themes in the study of pointlike sets. As an application, we provide a general method for transferring lower bounds for pointlikes along a large class of continuous operators on the lattice of pseudovarieties.
The question of computing the group complexity of finite semigroups and automata was first posed in K. Krohn and J. Rhodes, \textit{Complexity of finite semigroups}, Annals of Mathematics (2) \textbf{88} (1968), 128--160, motivated by the Prime Decomposition Theorem of K. Krohn and J. Rhodes, \textit{Algebraic theory of machines, {I}: {P}rime decomposition theorem for finite semigroups and machines}, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society \textbf{116} (1965), 450--464. Here we provide an effective lower bound for group complexity.
We prove that if $π$ is a recursive set of primes, then pointlike sets are decidable for the pseudovariety of semigroups whose subgroups are $π$-groups. In particular, when $π$ is the empty set, we obtain Henckell's decidability of aperiodic pointlikes. Our proof, restricted to the case of aperiodic semigroups, is simpler than the original proof.
We give a short proof, using profinite techniques, that idempotent pointlikes, stable pairs and triples are decidable for the pseudovariety of aperiodic monoids. Stable pairs are also described for the pseudovariety of all finite monoids.