A semigroup approach to wreath-product extensions of Solomon's descent algebras. (Q1010925)

Summary: There is a well-known combinatorial model, based on ordered set partitions, of the semigroup of faces of the braid arrangement. We generalize this model to obtain a semigroup \(\mathcal F_n^G\) associated with \(G\wr S_n\), the wreath product of the symmetric group \(S_n\) with an arbitrary group \(G\). Techniques of Bidigare and Brown are adapted to construct an anti-homomorphism from the \(S_n\)-invariant subalgebra of the semigroup algebra of \(\mathcal F_n^G\) into the group algebra of \(G\wr S_n\). The colored descent algebras of Mantaci and Reutenauer are obtained as homomorphic images when \(G\) is Abelian.