Periodic endomorphisms of a free monoid (Q1346302)

An endomorphism \(\varphi \in \text{End} (X^*)\) of the finitely generated free monoid \(X^*\) is said to be periodic if the semigroup generated by \(\varphi\) is finite, i.e., if \(\varphi^m = \varphi^n\) for some \(m \neq n\). The author finds necessary and sufficient conditions for an endomorphism to be periodic, and a method is presented how to construct all such endomorphisms. It is shown that the set of periodic endomorphisms is a finite union of locally finite semigroups \(S\) for which there exists an \(m\) such that \(S^m\) is isomorphic to a direct product \(R\times G\), where \(R\) is a rectangular band and \(G\) a full symmetric group.