Hierarchy of efficient generators of the symmetric inverse monoid (Q1357108)

Let \(X=\{1,2,\dots,n\}\) and denote by \(\text{SIM}(X)\) the symmetric inverse semigroup of all partial injective mappings on \(X\). The rank, \(\text{rank}(s)\), of an element \(s\in\text{SIM}(X)\) is defined by \(\text{rank}(s)=|D(s)|=|R(s)|\) where \(D(s)\) is the domain of \(s\) and \(R(s)\) is the range of \(s\). Let \(\text{rank}(s)=n-1\) and let \(r\) be the smallest positive integer such that \(\text{rank}(s^{r+1})=\text{rank}(s^r)\). The integer \(r\) is referred to as the index of nilpotence of \(s\). It is well known that if \(\text{rank}(s)=n-1\), then \(s\), together with the group of units of \(\text{SIM}(X)\), generates \(\text{SIM}(X)\). In this paper, the author shows that the efficiency with which these elements generate \(\text{SIM}(X)\) depends entirely upon the index of nilpotence of the element \(s\) where efficiency is measured in terms of the average number of generators needed in the shortest decompositions of all the elements in \(\text{SIM}(X)\).